An advertising technology startup that announced this week it has raised $15 million has about a quarter of its team in St. Louis, with an executive saying it plans to expand its local headcount in the next year.
The startup, Aditude, was founded in New York and operates remotely but has strong ties to St. Louis. Its founder and CEO, Jared Siegal, is a Washington University graduate and formerly worked at Answers Corp., a local technology firm that had a $900 million exit in 2014. Aditude Chief Technology Officer Erik Omlid is based in St. Louis and also worked at Answers, where he met Siegal. Omlid also had a stint at Clayton-based online learning firm Nerdy (NYSE: NRDY) and formerly worked in San Francisco for ride share company Lyft Inc. (Nasdaq: LYFT).
Aditude provides technologies designed to help publishers and websites manage their advertising operations, with its products focused on helping customers “operate and monetize display and video ads faster and more efficiently.” Omlid said Aditude’s technology seeks to “put publishers back in control” of their advertising operations and increase advertising revenue.
“Publishing from a tech perspective is very complex. It’s become more complex and publishers have not been able to catch up because they are so overwhelmed with other things that are going on and higher goals in terms of trying to reaching them for revenue,” Omlid said.
Aditude generates the majority of its revenue from software fees and revenue share deals with publishers, Omlid said. Clients of Aditude include PGA Tour, C-SPAN and National Review. Aditude was founded as an advertising consultancy before developing its own technology products, Omlid said.
Aditude has 16 employees, four of whom are located in the St. Louis region: Omlid and three software engineers. The company expects to boost its headcount after announcing this week it has raised $15 million in a Series A funding round from Boston-based growth equity firm Volition Capital. The company said it has previously been entirely self-funded and has operated profitably, adding that it had 478% growth in 2021 and 650% growth in 2022.
With its fresh funding, Aditude said it plans to put a focus on product development to enhance and expand its technology, increase its sales and marketing efforts, and eye potential acquisitions. It expects to hire for roles in engineering, sales, product design, product management and advertising operations. Aditude said it plans to double its number of employees by the end of 2024.
Omlid said he hopes to grow Aditude’s St. Louis footprint as the company expands, expecting the company could add more engineers here as well as other roles in the future. He said he’d like to see the company’s St. Louis headcount at least double over the next year.
“I know there’s talent (here)," Omlid said.
