Samba TV expands contextual targeting reach with acquisition of Semasio

Samba TV has announced the acquisition of Semasio, a company specializing in contextual targeting and audience data solutions. This strategic acquisition aims to enhance Samba TV’s ability to offer advertisers a seamless, AI-driven, omniscreen experience that blends contextual, behavioral, and demographic targeting capabilities.

The acquisition of Semasio provides Samba TV with a global edge, expanding its reach across North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. Semasio brings a powerful data engine to the table, capable of analyzing over 2.5 billion web pages per month and managing over 1 billion stable user profiles. With a client base spanning 100 customers in 50 countries, Semasio’s contextual and audience-targeting expertise enables advertisers to optimize campaigns in both traditional ID-based environments and the emerging ID-less landscape.

“Our vision at Samba TV is to utilize AI-generated insights to deliver high-performance advertising that respects user privacy,” said Ashwin Navin, Co-founder and CEO of Samba TV. “Semasio’s semantic analysis capabilities perfectly complement our AI-powered video targeting technology, allowing us to bridge video and web contexts seamlessly. As competitors struggle, we’re accelerating with the momentum of GenAI, ensuring robust privacy protections remain intact.”

Through the acquisition, Samba TV plans to integrate its proprietary video data within Semasio’s platform, creating a robust tool for advertisers to reach audiences with contextual precision across mobile, digital, and connected TV (CTV) platforms. The acquisition is timely as advertisers increasingly demand solutions that are both effective and privacy-compliant in a cookie-less digital landscape. Programmatic trading desks and other digital platforms will now have access to a more extensive suite of tools, enabling brands and agencies to leverage both first- and third-party data at scale across dozens of countries.

Aden Zaman, Samba TV’s Chief Commercial Officer, noted that the acquisition broadens Samba TV’s global data capabilities, which is essential for managing identity resolution and data onboarding across international markets. “Our longstanding partnership with Semasio made it clear that their platform has immense potential. By acquiring them, we’re adding value for data-centric companies looking to tap into our global media reach.”

The combined capabilities of Samba TV and Semasio aim to address the growing demand for advertising solutions that emphasize contextual intelligence over traditional tracking methods. As more brands prioritize user privacy and first-party data, Samba TV’s platform allows advertisers to build campaigns that resonate across all digital environments. The platform’s ability to manage both audience-based and contextual targeting supports Samba’s mission to provide precise, scalable solutions in a privacy-conscious marketplace.

Semasio’s General Manager Zac Pinkham, who will lead the company post-acquisition, highlighted the synergy between Samba’s measurement insights and Semasio’s targeting capabilities. “Our unified targeting approach, combined with Samba’s deep measurement tools and video data, brings advertisers the means to achieve enhanced reach and measurable outcomes,” he remarked. Jeff Ragovin, Semasio’s CEO, also expressed optimism, stating that joining Samba TV allows Semasio to pursue its vision of data-powered advertising with greater resources and expanded capabilities.

Semasio will continue to operate as an independent entity under the leadership of Pinkham, ensuring continuity for its current partners and customers. Though the financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed, the deal positions Samba TV and Semasio as frontrunners in providing AI-powered, privacy-centric advertising solutions across the open web and beyond.