Chocolate

Originally founded as Vdopia in 2007 by Saurabh Bhatia, Srikanth Kakani, and Chhavi Upadhyay, the company rebranded to Chocolate in 2017 to better reflect its focus on mobile video advertising. The business operates as a programmatic marketplace for mobile video, connecting advertisers and publishers to facilitate the buying and selling of ad inventory. Its revenue model is based on taking a percentage of the advertising spend that flows through its platform.

The company's core offering, Chocolate Marketplace, is a supply-side platform (SSP) designed specifically for mobile video advertising. It provides brand marketers and demand partners with access to video inventory across thousands of mobile apps and websites. The platform facilitates real-time bidding (RTB) for ad placements, even for partners who may lack full RTB capabilities. For app developers and publishers, Chocolate offers monetization solutions aimed at increasing advertising revenue, CPMs, and fill rates through a single software development kit (SDK). The technology is designed to be device-agnostic, compatible with major operating systems, and compliant with industry standards like VAST to ensure broad reach and measurability.

A significant development in the company's history was the acquisition of its app mediation platform by Freestar in July 2020. This transaction saw Freestar integrate Chocolate's technology to enhance its own in-app monetization services, while Vdopia, dba Chocolate, continued to operate its core Chocolate Marketplace video SSP business. In December 2012, the company, then Vdopia, secured $3.4 million in a Series B funding round from investors including Nexus Venture Partners and Dot Edu Ventures.

Keywords: programmatic advertising, mobile video, adtech, supply-side platform, ad marketplace, real-time bidding, app monetization, video advertising, digital media, publisher tools