Videoplaza

Founded in 2007 by Sorosh Tavakoli and Dante Buhay, Videoplaza established itself as a key player in the video advertising technology sector from its headquarters in London and an R&D hub in Stockholm. The company developed a sell-side ad management platform specifically engineered to assist broadcasters and premium video publishers in monetizing their content across a multitude of devices. Its core product, Karbon, was a video ad-serving platform, complemented by a programmatic trading solution called Konnect, enabling clients to manage their digital video advertising business and maximize revenue from both direct and programmatic sales channels.

Videoplaza's business model centered on providing this technology as a service to a client base that grew to include major broadcasters and media companies throughout Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. The platform was device-agnostic, supporting advertising delivery on services like Flash, Silverlight, HTML5, iOS, Android, and various smart TVs, which became crucial as video consumption shifted to non-PC devices. The company's growth was fueled by approximately $17.6 million in funding over several rounds from investors including Creandum, Northzone, Qualcomm Ventures, and Innovacom.

In October 2014, Videoplaza was acquired by Ooyala, a US-based online video platform provider, which was itself a subsidiary of the Australian telecom giant Telstra. The acquisition was a strategic move by Ooyala to integrate Videoplaza's robust ad-serving and monetization capabilities into its own suite of video content management and analytics tools. Following the acquisition, Videoplaza's founder and CEO, Sorosh Tavakoli, took charge of Ooyala's video advertising business line. The journey of the technology continued through further corporate changes; Ooyala's ad tech division, the former Videoplaza, was later acquired by INVIDI Technologies in December 2018. Subsequently, Ooyala's online video platform business was sold to Brightcove in 2019, which eventually led to the shutdown of the Ooyala OVP.

Keywords: video ad serving, adtech, sell-side platform, SSP, broadcast monetization, video advertising, programmatic trading, Karbon platform, Konnect, online video platform, Ooyala, INVIDI Technologies, premium publishers, IP-delivered TV, video monetization, ad management platform, digital video advertising, cross-device advertising, audience monetization, rich media advertising