Toronto native ad platform StackAdapt raises $1 million Series A from Plaza Ventures

Toronto’s StackAdapt, a native advertising company that helps Fortune 500 companies and agencies place branded content on over 35,000 publisher sites, has raised $1 million in Series A funding from Plaza Ventures.
Plaza’s portfolio includes other ad tech companies like Adcentricity, and has seen over 50 investments made since 1998.
“We’re excited to announce this strategic relationship with Plaza Ventures since they have a deep understanding of the technology and ad tech ecosystem,” said StackAdapt co-founder Ildar Shah. “Brands and agencies have readily adopted our native ads solution since launch, and we plan to use this funding to scale the self-serve platform and help them drive more meaningful interactions with their branded content.”
Founded in 2013 by Ildar Shar, Vitaly Pecherskiy and Yang Han, StackAdapt has a team of 20 people in their Toronto office.
StackAdapt has overseen the launch of over 1,500 native ad campaigns with its brand and agency clients from verticals including consumer packaged goods, automotive, travel and technology, who can place their content via in-feed ads or content recommendation widgets on sites like Reuters, USA Today, Popular Science and ABC News while clients can access a global supply of native advertising through a single interface.
“As brands look for more meaningful ways to reach customers, it’s clear that native advertising adds more value than  banner ads, which are increasingly ignored,” said Plaza Ventures Managing Partner Rob Richards. “StackAdapt has created a best-in-class platform with unique functionality and scalability, and we’re excited to partner with them to expand their presence in the ad tech space.” Richards is joining StackAdapt’s Board of Directors.
Over 30 native advertising exchanges are StackAdapt partners, including TripleLift, AdsNative, InMobi, and European native ad agency Adyoulike. StackAdapt’s clients include AdZouk, Iowa Tourism and m2, an IPG agency.
Working exclusively with native advertising, and no banner or display ads, the StackExchange platform makes over 100,000 decisions per second, serving native ads, amounting to over 100 billion monthly ad auctions.
Campaigns can be customized by a variety of factors, including location, device and operating system, and contextual targeting based on specific interests.
StackAdapt will use the funding to expand its Toronto team, focusing on product, tech, customer success, sales and marketing roles, and to scale its self-serve platform.