VC-backed Teads and Ebuzzing join forces for future Nasdaq listing

Ellie Pullen
03 April 2014

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Venture capital-backed French company Teads and Luxembourg-based Ebuzzing have merged ahead of a potential group listing on the Nasdaq next year.

The two companies will remain as independent entities following the merger. The shareholders of Teads have joined the shareholding of Ebuzzing as part of the transaction, resulting in a slight dilution of stakes across the board.

The new group is planning a flotation on the Nasdaq in 2015 due to projected growth of more than $100m in group revenues for this year. Partner banks are soon to be selected for the IPO process, according to the newly formed group.

Previous funding
Ebuzzing is backed by Gimv, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Gemini Israel Funds, according to unquote" data. The company initially received €4m from Gemini and Lightspeed in January 2007.

This was followed by a $25m series-B funding round in August 2011 led by Gimv, which provided $14.5m of the total. Alongside Lightspeed and Gemini, Ebuzzing founder Pierre Chappaz also participated in the round.

Teads received €4m in funding from Elaia Partners and Partech Ventures in October last year.

Companies
The newly merged group generated revenues of $70m in 2013. It has offices in 10 countries and employs 300 staff, including a team of more than 100 engineers in its France-based research and development facility.

Founded in 2007, Ebuzzing is headquartered in Luxembourg with 13 additional offices, including those located in Paris, London, Rome, Hamburg and Madrid. Prior to the merger, the company employed 250 staff and recorded revenues of $67.5m in 2013.

Ebuzzing develops video advertising campaigns for companies for distribution on social media channels. Recent campaigns have included those for 20th Century Fox, Adidas, Paramount and Universal.

At the time of Gimv's investment in 2011, Ebuzzing generated revenues of $15m and employed 160 staff, according to unquote" data.

Teads was founded in 2011 and is headquartered in Montpellier with several additional offices. The company develops a video advertisement platform for publishers and advertisement networks.

Its inSuite format family includes inRead, a mid-article advertisement format; inStream, which plays a video advertisement before video content; and inFlow, which displays a skippable video advertisement between web pages. Teads' video advertisement formats start playing when the content is visible on the user's screen.

People
Ebuzzing founder and CEO has been named president and CEO of the Ebuzzing and Teads group. Loïc Soubeyrand will remain CEO of Teads while Bertrand Quesada will become CEO of Ebuzzing.

Pascal Gauthier, the former Criteo COO who was introduced as an "independent administrator" for Teads in conjunction with the company's funding round in October, has been appointed to the new group's board alongside former Havas Digital co-CEO Anthony Rhind.

Representatives from Partech and Elaia will also join the group's board of directors.