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Moloco

Category: AI in Marketing

Moloco offers a suite of programmatic advertising solutions powered by advanced machine learning. Its cloud-based platform enables businesses to buy and sell ad inventory automatically, optimizing for performance metrics like return on ad spend (ROAS) and user growth. Moloco was founded in 2013. The company is led by Ikkjin Ahn. Based in Redwood City, California, USA (HQ) with major offices in Seoul, Singapore, London, and Tokyo.. Team size: 501-1,000. Total funding raised: ~$200M. Latest round: Series C ($150M, Aug 2021). Key investors include ["Tiger Global Management","Fidelity Management & Research Company","Samsung Ventures","Smilegate Investment","Shinhan GIB"].

Founded
2013
Headquarters
Redwood City, California, USA (HQ) with major offices in Seoul, Singapore, London, and Tokyo.
Team size
501-1,000
Total funding
~$200M

Value proposition

To empower businesses of all sizes to grow through operational machine learning, providing sophisticated, transparent, and high-performance advertising tools that were once only available to tech giants.

Products and solutions

["Moloco Ads (formerly Moloco Cloud DSP): A demand-side platform for performance advertisers.","Moloco Retail Media Platform: Enables e-commerce marketplaces to build their own ad businesses.","Moloco Streaming TV: A performance advertising solution for the connected TV ecosystem.","Moloco Ad Exchange: A real-time bidding marketplace connecting publishers with advertisers."]

Unique value

Moloco's technology was built from the ground up for the mobile-first era, focusing on performance-driven results. Its unified ad platform allows customers to manage user acquisition, re-engagement, and monetization seamlessly, which is a key differentiator from siloed solutions.

Target customer

Performance-focused marketers, mobile app developers, e-commerce marketplaces, and streaming service providers.

Industries served

["Mobile Gaming","E-commerce & Retail","Streaming & OTT","Fintech","On-demand Services (Food Delivery, Ride-sharing)"]

Technology advantage

Proprietary machine learning engine built on deep neural networks that analyzes trillions of data points for real-time ad performance optimization. The model is self-serve, accessible via a user-friendly cloud platform, and highly scalable.

How they differentiate

Moloco's core differentiator is its use of deep neural networks and advanced machine learning for real-time bidding and performance advertising, which allows for highly effective user acquisition and retention campaigns. Unlike competitors who may focus on specific niches, Moloco provides a full-funnel solution from performance to brand advertising.

Main competitors

["The Trade Desk","Criteo","AppLovin","InMobi"]

Key partnerships

["Partnerships with major ad exchanges like Google AdX, MoPub (formerly), and Unity.","Integration with leading measurement partners like AppsFlyer and Adjust.","Collaborations with e-commerce platforms to power their retail media networks."]

Notable customers

["King (Activision Blizzard)","Playtika","Netmarble","Rappi","Flipkart"]

Major milestones

["Reached $100M in revenue (2020) and $200M in revenue (2022).","Named one of the 'Best Workplaces in the Bay Area' by Fortune (2023).","Launched Moloco Retail Media Platform and Moloco Streaming TV (2023).","Expanded global operations with new offices in Europe and Asia."]

Growth metrics

Achieved over $200 million in annual revenue. Consistently profitable for over 10 consecutive quarters. Processes over 12 million ad bid requests per second.

Market positioning

A leader in the programmatic advertising and machine learning-based adtech space, recognized as a profitable 'centaur' (over $100M in ARR). It is one of the top demand-side platforms (DSPs) for the mobile app ecosystem.

Geographic focus

Global, with a strong presence in North America, APAC (South Korea, Japan, Southeast Asia), and Europe.

Patents and IP

Multiple patents filed and granted in areas of machine learning models for bid optimization, user behavior prediction, and fraud detection in digital advertising.

About Ikkjin Ahn

Ikkjin Ahn has nearly two decades of experience in the software and monetization industry. Before co-founding Moloco, he worked at Google and YouTube, where he developed a video profitability prediction system and was the founding Tech Lead Manager for the Android Data team.

Official website: