Jordan Bevan
Blackstone Group Inc. announced that it’s making a “significant” equity investment in programmatic advertising and agency management software Simpli.fi, valuing the company at about $1.5 billion.
Founded by Frost Prioleau and Paul Harrison in 2010, Simpli.fi provides software for media buyers to execute digital ad campaigns to maximize ROI on ad spend across mobile, CTV, display, and other media types. The company’s products are used by 120,000 campaigns for 30,000 advertisers in a typical month, it said in a statement.
“We are thrilled to partner with Blackstone as we pursue the next stage of growth for Simpli.fi,” said Simpli.fi CEO Frost Prioleau. “Blackstone’s depth of capabilities and expertise are a great complement to those of GTCR, and their investment is a validation of the fantastic work done by our team members to get us to this point.”
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With the deal, Blackstone will join existing investor GTCR as Simpli.fi’s majority shareholder and the two will have equal representation on the company’s Board of Directors.
“Simpli.fi’s highly differentiated technology platform and superior customer service have made it a clear leader in its space. Digital advertising is a high-conviction investment theme at Blackstone and Simpli.fi sits at the intersection of multiple attractive tailwinds, including the continued shift in local media spend to programmatic digital and CTV. We are very excited to partner with the management team and GTCR to further accelerate the Company’s growth.” said Sachin Bavishi, Managing Director at Blackstone.
Two months ago, Bloomberg reported that the special purpose acquisition company D & Z Media Acquisition Corp. was in talks to merge with Simpli.fi. According to the report, the SPAC was seeking to raise new equity to support a transaction that valued the combined entity at $1.5 billion or more.
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