Sabio set to go public

U.S.-based Ad tech company Sabio, which will be known as Sabio Holdings Inc,  is about to hit the public markets with an aim to bring its connected TV advertising solutions to a wider audience. 

Sabio announced on Monday the completion of its qualifying transaction, a reverse takeover with Spirit Banner II Capital Corp, which paves the way to commence trading on Friday on the TSX Venture Exchange under the ticker “SBIO.”

Founded in 2015, Los Angeles-based Sabio is a CTV platform business that uses mobile phone-based data, device location and user behaviour to help companies and brands in targeting their ad campaigns. 

Sabio is headed by CEO Aziz Rahimtoola, formerly SVP at Opera Mediaworks and with prior roles as a director at AT&T’s Adworks and NBC Universal. Rahimtoola said Sabio’s platform is invested in what they call “app science” to give companies better insight into consumer behaviour.

“I’ve spent a number of years at various media companies and in those journeys what I realized is the need to provide a deeper understanding of the consumer and specifically an understanding from the in-app mobile perspective,” said Rahimtoola, speaking on BeetTV earlier this year. “When we first started the company we set out to really focus in on that element relative to boiling the ocean — we really wanted to hone in on user behaviour as it relates to app behaviour.”

Rahimtoola says there’s a lot of ground to be mined in the space between mobile phones and connected TV.

“What we like to say is an app is an app, so regardless if the app is on your phone or on your TV it’s an app. What Sabio and app science are focusing on providing deeper unique targeting reach and capabilities. And then, along with creative capabilities, to provide agnostic analytics and insights on CTV and OTT along with mobile campaigns,” he said.