A local advertising fraud detector got snapped up today by a West Coast adtech player.
Santa Barbara, CA-based Impact Radius acquired New York-based Forensiq, whose software and data scientists work to catch bogus impressions in online ads, such as from click fraud and “cookie stuffing.” Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
David Sendroff, CEO and founder of Forensiq, says his company’s software is a way to check for fake hits on online ads generated by bots and other schemes to artificially inflate traffic numbers.
That sort of trick is used by some nefarious ad networks to bilk advertisers, particularly in pay-per-click arrangements—a problem Sendroff estimates collectively costs companies more than $8 billion annually. “The brands are losers in that case because they pay for advertising that never had a chance of making any impressions,” he says.
Forensiq, founded in 2010, and its staff of 45 will consolidate offices where they overlap with Impact Radius, which also has offices in New York, Sendroff says. Impact Radius developed a software platform that advertisers can use to manage their media, as well as performance marketing campaigns.
The Forensiq brand will remain separate, Sendroff says, but the company will have additional resources at its disposal under its new parent. Just last week, Impact Radius raised $30 million in growth funding from Boston-based Silversmith Capital Partners.
Sendroff, who previously was CIO of marketing firm Spire Vision, says he decided to make the deal on Forensiq when the company reached a certain threshold in its own growth cycle. “We came to a point where we could go out and raise money or look for strategic folks we could merge with,” he says.
