Outbrain, headquartered in New York and focused on providing weblink recommendations on news websites, has raised $160 million at a $1.25 billion valuation in its IPO. It sold 8 million shares on the NASDAQ with an IPO price of $20 a share.
Outbrain is a widget at the bottom of news stories that recommend other links for readers to click on.
According to the company, many people voluntarily clicked on the recommendations for other stories Outbrain creates. It allows advertisers to add their messages and the firm can share part of the revenue.
The Outbrain co-CEO Yaron Galai commented,
“So much that has changed and evolved, as we started before mobile even existed in a real way. The thing I’m proud of most is the vision for this market has remained remarkably consistent. And that was to solve two things. First, the user experience for people to help them discover what’s next. And the second is to create a sustainable source of revenue for media owners, for publishers and newspapers.”
Established in 2006, the company continues growing with high engagement from e-commerce sites and mobile apps.
The company has 300 employees that work in two centers – one in Israel and the other in Slovenia. Another 900 people work across the world in other offices. In addition, it has made five acquisitions since its launch.
While some people may think that that topics provided by the company are clickbait, the co-CEO replied, “what’s really important is to personalize and provide useful recommendations for each individual user.”
He also said that the company is a strong supporter of consumer privacy, which resulted in the adoption of regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Galai said,
“We apply that globally and not just in Europe…We are strong supporters of consumers having control of how their data is used.”
