Nth Party

Nth Party, established in 2020 by co-founders Shereen Shermak, Andrei Lapets, Frederick Jansen, and Adam Towvim, developed sophisticated software centered on privacy-enhancing technologies. The company specialized in secure multi-party computation, which allows for the analysis and processing of encrypted data without ever needing to decrypt it. This capability addressed a critical need in the advertising technology sector, where the use of first-party audience data was becoming paramount. Nth Party's solution enabled clients to run workflows and web services on encrypted information, ensuring that sensitive data remained secure at all times, even while in use.

The firm's business model was to provide this cryptographic software to its clients, which could be deployed either on-premises or within the client's own cloud infrastructure. This ensured that Nth Party itself never had access to or stored the customer's data, offering a high level of security and data privacy compliance. The company's technology was particularly relevant for sell-side advertising platforms and other entities handling large volumes of audience data who needed to perform analysis while respecting user privacy. The growing importance of privacy-compliant, first-party data in advertising created a strong market fit for Nth Party's services.

In a significant milestone, Nth Party was acquired by Magnite, a major independent sell-side advertising platform, in December 2021 for $9 million in cash. The acquisition was a strategic move by Magnite to accelerate its data activation efforts and strengthen its capabilities in building identity and audience solutions for both sellers and buyers in a privacy-centric manner. Following the acquisition, the entire Nth Party team, consisting of seven employees including five engineers, was integrated into Magnite. This integration aimed to leverage Nth Party's expertise in secure computation to enhance Magnite's offerings in the increasingly regulated digital advertising landscape.

Keywords: privacy-enhancing technology, secure multi-party computation, cryptographic software, encrypted data analysis, data privacy, adtech, audience data security, first-party data, data activation, sell-side platform, Magnite acquisition, secure data sharing, on-premises deployment, cloud security, data compliance, identity solutions, audience solutions, encrypted workflows, privacy-centric advertising, data security software