International expansion and new ad formats push programmatic video platform to record revenue figures and profitability; two-thirds of revenue now coming from outside UK

Video ad tech company and Future Fifty member Unruly today announces revenues of $45.9M (£28.7m) for FY2014-15 – an increase of 35% from the previous financial year.

International expansion and the introduction of new mobile formats saw the programmatic video platform – which helps advertisers get their videos watched, tracked and shared across the Open Web – achieve positive EBITDA while smashing the $45 million revenue mark.

The last 12 months have seen the company release a number of new products and formats, including UnrulyX™ – the first programmatic media trading platform to guarantee the viewability of premium video impressions bought via RTB.

The development of an emotional targeting capability to predict which viewers will demonstrate an intense emotional response to a specific ad and the launch of the industry’s first in-feed format to deliver native video ads at scale across the mobile web also helped the company to deliver record revenues.

Unruly co-founder and CEO Scott Button said: “As a profitable ad tech company, delivering strong organic growth and positioned at the intersect of mobile, video, native and social, Unruly is well placed to continue growth by solving the biggest challenges facing brand marketers today: how to beat the ad blockers, cut through the clutter and authentically connect with consumers at the speed and scale of social.”

Speaking this week from the NOAH conference in Berlin, where he is delivering a CMO workshop on “Why the Content Stack is the Next Big Thing,” Button said: “The tectonic plates are shifting in ad tech. Businesses that want to future-proof their brand need to engage consumers with content that is authentic, meaningful and shareable. Over the last 12 months we have seen brands investing more budget in online video, using our predictive technology to bridge the gap between the content stack and the ad tech stack.”

Unruly has also expanded into new territories during the last 12 months, with almost two-thirds (63%) of its revenue now coming from outside its London HQ. As well as launching an APAC HQ in Singapore, Unruly also opened new offices in Dubai and Sydney. During the same period, Unruly’s headcount has increased from 140 to 200.

Unruly milestones during FY2014-2015 include:

• New products launched:
• UnrulyX™, the first supply-side platform (SSP) for mobile video to guarantee the viewability of premium video impressions bought via RTB;
• Unruly’s skippable pre-roll format, Unruly In-Stream, which puts the viewer in control and gives advertisers cost-efficient reach at speed and scale;
• Unruly’s native In-Feed format, the first ad format to deliver native video ads at scale across mobile newsfeeds, with viewability guaranteed
• Unruly Custom Audiences, a targeting capability which identifies viewers who demonstrate an intense emotional response to a specific ad, leading to increases in earned media, brand recall, and purchase intent.
• Awards: The Company received a number of awards over the last 12 months. As well as being ranked in Business Insider’s Hottest Pre-IPO Ad Tech Companies, it featured in the      Sunday Times’ Hiscox Tech Track 100, an annual ranking of the fastest-growing companies in the UK; it was one of On Media’s 50 Companies to Watch in the US and was named the Next Big Thing at GroupM’s annual APAC Awards in December 2014;
• Increased audience reach: During the past 12 months, Unruly extended its global reach across all platforms and devices from 1.02bn to 1.36 billion monthly UUs, according to comScore. Unruly has run 14,000+ video campaigns to date;
• Global expansion: Unruly now has 15 offices around the world after launching in Dubai, Singapore and Sydney in the last 12 months.