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- Integral Ad Science
Integral Ad Science Acquisition, Valuation, Funding & Investors
Integral Ad Science was acquired by Novacap for $1.9B in September 2025, a 3.6x multiple on $530M of revenue.
Integral Ad Science acquisition price
$1.9B
Acquired by Novacap · Sep 2025
Integral Ad Science revenue at acquisition
$530M
Last twelve months · Sep 2025
Integral Ad Science revenue multiple at acquisition
3.6x
EV/Revenue · Sep 2025
Integral Ad Science EBITDA multiple at acquisition
15.3x
EV/EBITDA · Sep 2025
Integral Ad Science Overview
About Integral Ad Science
Integral Ad Science (IAS) is a media measurement and optimization company, founded in 2009 by Scott Knoll and headquartered in New York City, that provides ad verification, fraud detection, brand safety, and viewability tools for advertisers, publishers, and media platforms. Its AI-powered solutions are designed to confirm that ads reach real people in safe environments, improving return on ad spend for buyers and yield for publishers. IAS serves Fortune 500 brands and publishers with operations spanning more than a dozen countries.
HQ
Website
Status
Acquired
Customer focus
B2B
Revenue model
Usage-based, Subscription
Revenue
$530M (Sep 2025)
Valuation
$1.9B (acquired Sep 2025)
Integral Ad Science Acquisition
Integral Ad Science was acquired by Novacap for $1.9B on 24 September 2025.
The acquisition price implies a 3.6x revenue and 15.3x EBITDA multiple on $530M of revenue.
Before the acquisition Integral Ad Science had raised $57M across 2 funding rounds.
Integral Ad Science (IAS), founded in 2009 by Scott Knoll and headquartered in New York City, operates a leading global media measurement and optimization platform. IAS delivers actionable data for advertisers, publishers, and media platforms, providing ad verification, fraud detection, brand safety, viewability tools, and AI-powered solutions that ensure ads reach real people in safe environments, improving return on ad spend and publisher yield. Led by CEO Lisa Utzschneider, IAS went private through its acquisition by Novacap, a Montreal-headquartered North American private equity firm focused on technology investments. Novacap announced the definitive agreement to acquire IAS on September 24, 2025, in an all-cash transaction valuing the company at $1.9 billion, with shareholders receiving $10.30 per share—a 22% premium to the prior closing price. The deal, led by Novacap partner Samuel Nasso, included $1 billion term loan and $150 million revolving credit facilities from Royal Bank of Canada, Bank of America, Barclays, and others; Jefferies and Kirkland & Ellis advised IAS, while Evercore and Willkie Farr advised Novacap. Principal shareholder Vista Equity Partners exited its investment upon closing, approved unanimously by the IAS board and majority shareholders via written consent, subject to Hart-Scott-Rodino antitrust clearance. The acquisition closed on December 23, 2025, transitioning IAS to private ownership to accelerate AI innovation, global scaling, and growth amid sub-3% ad tech sector fundamentals. Novacap aims to partner with IAS leadership to enhance its category-leading position, delivering advanced advertising solutions for Fortune 500 brands and publishers in a complex digital media landscape.
| Acquirer | Date | Type | Price | EV/Revenue | EV/EBITDA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 Sep 2025 | PE buyout | $1.9B | 3.6x | 15.3x |
Integral Ad Science Funding History
Integral Ad Science has raised a total of $57M across 2 funding rounds.
Integral Ad Science's first fundraising round was a $30M Series D in January 2014. The most recent completed round was a $27M Series E in July 2015.
Integral Ad Science funding rounds
| Date | Stage | Investors | Raised | Deal Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 2015 | Series E | Sapphire Ventures (lead); Accomplice | $27M | Integral Ad Science (IAS) is a technology and data company providing digital media quality solutions, including verification, optimization, and analytics to address ad fraud, viewability, brand safety, and measurement challenges in digital advertising. The company empowers brands, agencies, publishers, and technology firms to ensure ads reach real humans in the right context. In July 2015, IAS raised $27 million in a Series E round led by Sapphire Ventures, with participation from Accomplice, Atlas Venture, August Capital, Cross Creek, Digital Trek, and Pelion Venture Partners, alongside a line of credit on the same date. This round contributed to the company's total funding exceeding $120 million across 10 rounds by later years. By September 2016, IAS had grown to over $100 million in annual revenue, up from under $1 million in 2010, marking it as one of New York's fastest-growing software companies. This growth supported an employee base of over 400 across 12 countries and expansion to more than 1,600 advertisers globally, with 500 new customers added in the prior year. The company underwent an acquisition-financing event in June 2018 at an $850 million valuation and went public via IPO in June 2021 raising $270 million. |
| Jan 2014 | Series D | August Capital (lead); Citizen VC; Atlas Venture; Pelion Venture Partners | $30M | Integral Ad Science, a New York-based media valuation platform originally known as AdSafe Media, rebranded in 2012 to focus on evaluating ad placement quality beyond verification, offering tools like the TRAQ Score that assess brand safety, page content, and ad viewability for both buy-side and sell-side customers. The company raised $30 million in a Series D funding round in early 2014, led by August Capital, with participation from existing investors Atlas Venture and Pelion Venture Partners; August partner Eric Carlborg joined the board. This followed a $10 million Series C in 2012, bringing total funding to about $49.8 million prior to later rounds, and CEO Scott Knoll noted the raise was opportunistic as the company was not in need of capital. Plans included global expansion, adding video and other ad channels to display ads, leveraging machine learning for improved algorithms amid growing programmatic buying. The company emphasized its dual-sided market position and shift toward comprehensive media valuation. Later developments show continued growth, with a 2017 funding mix of $27 million equity from Sapphire Ventures and others plus $40 million debt from Silicon Valley Bank, at which point revenue was projected to surpass $100 million annually and the firm had achieved three years of profitability with 100% year-over-year top-line growth, employing 270 people with plans to reach 340. Funds supported global expansion, hiring data scientists and engineers, and potential acquisitions of complementary technologies. Integral Ad Science went public via IPO on June 30, 2021, on NASDAQ under ticker IAS, raising $270 million at an implied $2.6 billion valuation. |
Who has invested in Integral Ad Science?
6 investors have backed Integral Ad Science across its funding rounds, including Accomplice, Sapphire Ventures, Atlas Venture, Pelion Venture Partners, August Capital and Citizen VC.
Lead investors include Sapphire Ventures and August Capital.
Integral Ad Science Investors
| Investor | HQ | Rounds | Role | First check |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Participant | Jul 2015 | ||
| 1 | Participant | Jan 2014 | ||
| 1 | Lead | Jan 2014 | ||
| 1 | Participant | Jan 2014 | ||
This data is available for Pro users. Sign up to see all 6 Integral Ad Science investors. Start Free Trial | ||||
Benchmark 350K+ Funding Rounds and Disclosed VC Valuation Multiples
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Start Free TrialAcquisitions by Integral Ad Science
Integral Ad Science has acquired 7 companies to date.
Last acquisition by Integral Ad Science was on January 4th 2022. Integral Ad Science acquired Context for $26M.
Latest Acquisitions by Integral Ad Science
| Description | Context is a London-based face recognition app identifying celebrities from smartphone photos, displaying biographies, news, and social profiles. Launched in 2013 by Jack Habra as Reminiz, it supports integrations with Smart TVs, set-top boxes, and tablets. The service scans databases of over 100,000 public figures for instant lookups. | - | Amino Payments is a New York-based fintech company leveraging blockchain, payments infrastructure, and ad tech to enhance transparency in digital advertising. Founded by veterans from Integral Ad Science, Monetate, and Sailthru, it deploys smart contracts to verify ad viewability, eliminate fraud, and automate settlements across the supply chain. The platform supports publishers, advertisers, and DSPs by providing immutable audit trails for impressions and clicks, reducing waste in programmatic buying. Amino Payments processes transactions on Ethereum-compatible networks for real-time reconciliation. | ADmantX is a Milan-headquartered provider of cookie-less contextual advertising technology utilizing semantic analysis, natural language processing, and sentiment analysis. As a spin-off from Expert System, the company holds patents for its audience targeting solutions integrated into DSPs like Turn, Adform, and AppNexus. Clients including NBCUniversal, Integral Ad Science, and Sojern leverage ADmantX across Europe and the United States for compliant ad campaigns on publishers and exchanges. | |
| HQ Country | |||||
| HQ City | Paris | - | Philadelphia, PA | Modena | |
| Deal Date | 4 Jan 2022 | 10 Aug 2021 | 14 Jan 2021 | 20 Nov 2019 | |
| Valuation | $26M | $220M | undisclosed | $18M | |
| EV/Revenue | |||||
| EV/EBITDA | |||||
This data is available for Pro users. Sign up to see all Integral Ad Science acquisitions and their M&A valuation multiples. Start Free Trial | |||||
Integral Ad Science Competitors
Integral Ad Science competitors include listed companies like DoubleVerify, Affle 3i and LiveRamp, and private ones like Aleph Group, InMobi and Moloco.
| Company | HQ | Status | Revenue | EBITDA | Valuation | Revenue Multiple |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Private | - | - | $2B | - | ||
| Private | $1B | - | $2B | 2.0x | ||
| Private | $200M | - | $2B | 10.0x | ||
| Publicly listed | $748M | $136M | $2.1B | 2.5x | ||
| Publicly listed | $282M | $67M | $2.3B | 6.7x | ||
| Publicly listed | $813M | $97M | $2.3B | 2.3x |
Integral Ad Science Public Comps
Integral Ad Science is no longer listed, but its public comps include DoubleVerify, Affle 3i, LiveRamp, Mobvista, Digital Turbine, Five9, Taboola, Vobile, Ibotta and Liftoff Mobile.
| Last FY | EV/Revenue | EV/EBITDA | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | EBITDA | Last FY | LTM | 2027E | Last FY | LTM | 2027E | |
| $748M | $136M | 2.7x | 2.5x | 14.6x | 7.4x | |||
| $282M | $67M | 7.4x | 6.7x | 31.3x | 29.5x | |||
| $813M | $97M | 2.4x | 2.3x | 20.3x | 9.7x | |||
| $2B | $152M | 1.1x | 0.9x | 14.3x | 19.9x | |||
| $565M | $85M | 2.9x | 2.7x | 19.4x | 12.0x | |||
| $1.1B | $91M | 2.4x | 2.2x | 30.1x | 9.1x | |||
| $1.9B | $121M | 0.5x | 0.5x | 8.4x | 4.5x | |||
| $366M | $63M | 3.1x | 2.6x | 18.0x | 20.1x | |||
This data is available for Pro users. Sign up to see all Integral Ad Science competitors and their valuation data. Start Free Trial | ||||||||
Common questions about Integral Ad Science
| Where is Integral Ad Science headquartered? | Integral Ad Science is headquartered in United States. |
| Is Integral Ad Science publicly listed? | No, Integral Ad Science was acquired by Novacap in September 2025. |
| Who acquired Integral Ad Science? | Integral Ad Science was acquired by Novacap in September 2025. |
| How much was Integral Ad Science acquired for? | Integral Ad Science was acquired for $1.9B in September 2025, a 3.6x revenue multiple. |
| How much funding has Integral Ad Science raised? | Integral Ad Science has raised $57M across 2 funding rounds. |
| What was Integral Ad Science's last funding round? | Integral Ad Science's last funding round was a $27M Series E in July 2015, led by Sapphire Ventures. |
| Who are Integral Ad Science's investors? | Integral Ad Science's investors include Accomplice, Citizen VC, August Capital, Atlas Venture, Sapphire Ventures and Pelion Venture Partners. |
| Which companies are comparable to Integral Ad Science? | Companies comparable to Integral Ad Science include Aleph Group, InMobi, Moloco, DoubleVerify, Affle 3i and LiveRamp. |
| How many companies has Integral Ad Science acquired? | Integral Ad Science has acquired 7 companies, including Context, Publica, Amino Payments, ADmantX and Swarm Enterprises. |
| What was the largest acquisition by Integral Ad Science? | The $220M acquisition of Publica in August 2021 is the largest acquisition Integral Ad Science has made to date. |
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