Neal Richter Joins Rakuten Marketing as CTO; Verve Acquires German Push-Marketing Company matchinguu
Neal Richter Joins Rakuten Marketing as CTO; Verve Acquires German Push-Marketing Company matchinguu https://csuiteold.c-suitenetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/neal-richter-joins-rakuten-marketing-as-cto-verve-acquires-german-push-marketing-company-matchinguu.png 600 600 C-Suite Network https://csuiteold.c-suitenetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/neal-richter-joins-rakuten-marketing-as-cto-verve-acquires-german-push-marketing-company-matchinguu.png
ExchangeWire rounds up some of the biggest stories in the European digital advertising space. In this week’s edition: Neal Richter joins Rakuten Marketing as CTO; Verve acquires German push-marketing company matchinguu; BillFront announces financing facility for Fyber; Forward3D launches in Dubai; and ADYOULIKE releases ‘Native Creative 2.0’.
Neal Richter joins Rakuten Marketing as CTO
Ad tech pioneer, veteran, and ex-Rubicon CTO Dr. Neal Richter has been appointed as the new CTO of Rakuten Marketing, the marketing subsidiary of Rakuten, the Japanese ecommerce behemoth.
A man with a large stake in the development of the future of programmatic, Richter helped pioneer the OpenRTB standard and the new IAB Tech Lab initiative to spell the end of domain spoofing, ads.txt. As well as being known in his role as CTO of Rubicon Project, which he held for seven years, Richter also serves as technical advisor for ad tech platforms, such as Metamarkets.
For those that found Richter’s latest move surprising, given his position on the top table of ad tech and programmatic, Richter confirms in an interview with AdExchanger that he was looking for a company with ‘some large engineering problems to go after’: “My background has been at two large companies that were fairly acquisitive, so I’m familiar with how you integrate disparate engineering teams and create common objectives for what the technology needs to evolve to be.”
Richter wants to bring his technical skills in the world of engineering, programming, machine learning, and AI into ecommerce, believing this is where the future of ecommerce lies. An interesting move and one that will be watched intently to see how Richter makes his mark.
Verve acquires German push-marketing company matchinguu
Location-based marketing platform, Verve expands its footprint across Europe, with the acquisition of matchinguu for an undisclosed sum. The German company, with its proximity-based push and in-app notification product will be integrated into the Verve Velocity platform to enable Verve’s clients to expand reach across European audiences.
matchinguu commands a 25% penetration rate of the German smartphone market, allowing for integration of Verve’s software development kit (SDK) into major apps across Germany, enabling clients to deliver richer and more engaging mobile advertising based on real-time consumer behaviour, according to the press release. The New York-headquartered Verve open its first UK office in 2016 and is committed to further expanding its reach across Europe.
Ian James, general manager international, Verve said of the acquisition, “[It] came naturally, thanks to the complementary technologies and both parties having similar missions: enabling great storytelling through location-powered data. We are opening the doors to Germany’s foremost push technology; working together will make our offering even stronger for our clients and bring Verve firmly into the heart of Europe….
