Aleph Holding - Digital Media Partner

As a global digital media partner, Aleph Holding connects the largest digital platforms with advertisers and consumers in emerging and underserved countries.

Mar 10, 2022

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Snapshot

Aleph is a leading global enabler of digital advertising. It connects the largest digital platforms with thousands of advertisers and billions of consumers in emerging and underserved countries. It has commercial and exclusive agreements with over 25 digital platforms including Twitter, Meta, LinkedIn, Snapchat, TikTok, Spotify and Twitch. Aleph also utilizes its global footprint and end-to-end digital advertising solution to enable advertisers in 72 countries to maximize their digital advertising potential.

It is headquartered in Miami, Florida, and has managed to raise $470M in a single private equity round. It was last valued at $2B.

About Aleph Holding: Website, LinkedIn

Business Overview and Products

Aleph works with leading digital platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Spotify and 15 others. It represents them across 50+ markets in Latin America, Europe and APAC. It helps advertisers maximize the value of their investment through a combination of innovative proprietary technology, digital expertise and local market knowledge.

The teams at Aleph help brands master the leading digital platforms, bringing them closer to their customers. These services are delivered through Aleph’s portfolio of digital media service brands, which include IMS; Httpool; WISE.BLUE; and Social Snack.

How It Works

Aleph is a holding company that owns a suite of digital media service companies through which it enables advertising on digital platforms across geographies. The primary focus is on advertising in under-served markets. This suite of companies includes internet media services such as IMS, which focuses on Latin America; and Httpool which focuses on Europe and Asia. It also has Social Snack, a content and creative development agency; and WISE.BLUE, the largest performance tech-API platform for Twitter. Aleph also helps advertisers maximize the value of their investments through partnerships.

Business Model and Pricing

The Aleph business model works with a unique combination of innovative technology, local market knowledge, and trusted relationships with advertisers. Aleph generates revenue by helping corporations and social media companies work with each other in regions mainly outside the US and Europe. According to Aleph’sfounder Gaston Taratuta, roughly 90% of Aleph’s revenue is generated from outside the US.

Traction

In 2020, Aleph achieved $475M in sales. According to Aleph executives, the company has been on track to double its annual revenue in 2021 to roughly $150M and grow its gross advertising sales to be $1B. It has also catered to more than 20 partners and over 5,000 clients across the US, Latin America, Europe and Asia. It has now also entered the MENA region and increased its presence to over 90 markets in the world.

In 2021, Aleph grew revenues from its top digital platform partners by 190%. Moreover, its list of new clients has grown 26%, serving over 10,000 advertisers globally.

Founder(s)

Gaston Taratuta: Founder and CEO at Aleph. Gaston has 20 years of experience in the digital marketing industry. He founded IMS in 2005 and now oversees all IMS sales teams and manages the company’s strategic direction.

Aljoša Jenko: Partner and CEO at Aleph. He has extensive international experience as entrepreneur, CEO and digital advertising specialist. He co-founded several advertising, media, software and technology companies across Europe, Asia and the US.

Ignacio Vidaguren: Partner and COO at Aleph. Ignacio joined IMS as the new COO, responsible for expanding IMS products and services, developing new revenue opportunities and overseeing the company’s day-to-day business operations.

Mariano Roman: Partner and CTO at Aleph. He has 26 years of experience in leading media agencies such as Universal McCann, Agulla & Baccetti and MediaCom, where he was the CEO for Latin America.

History and Evolution

Aleph was originally founded as IMS (Internet Media Services) by Gaston Taratuta in 2005 in Miami. However, in 2015 the company sold a 51% stake to Sony Pictures Television for roughly $100M. Some of this stake was repurchased by Gaston and his fellow co-founders in 2019 and the name Aleph was coined. Sony continued as a minority shareholder.

In July 2021, Aleph Holding reportedly sold a stake to private-equity firm CVC Capital Partners for $470M, which valued the company at $2B. This fundraising will allow existing employees and shareholders, including founder Gastón Taratuta, to sell stock. It is also rumored that the company is preparing for an initial public offering as soon as early 2022. However, before the IPO takes place, Aleph hopes to continue expanding its offerings in developing countries through acquisitions.

Additional Learnings

Just after the $470M fundraising round, Aleph announced the acquisition of an 86% stake in Egyptian advertising platform Connect Ads, in a deal comprising cash and stock.
In January 2022, Aleph announced that twitter had made a minority investment in the company. The investment will help support Aleph’s educational efforts worldwide. These include building a proprietary educational tech platform, digital advertising training and certification to over 50,000 digital professionals in 90 countries across 5 continents, and efforts to create new digital jobs in underserved markets. Aleph is currently an exclusive advertising partner for Twitter.
In August 2021, Latin American Fintech company MercadoLibre agreed to acquire a $25M stake in Aleph and will (in collaboration) monetize advertising space on MercadoLibre’s digital properties in countries where MercadoLibre does not have local sales operations.

Market Snapshot

With the explosive growth of digital advertising, many brands across the world have been able to reach their customers faster and more accurately than ever. According to eMarketer, global digital advertising spending is expected to reach $455B in 2021.
While Facebook and Youtube have been most popular in terms of user base and ad spending, other platforms have become just as useful for advertising companies to use for their benefit. For example, in 2021, TikTok had 732 million active users and Snapchat had 514 million, making these apps the 7th and 11th most popular social media platforms in the world.
According to a study by Hinge Research Institute, brands that embrace digital marketing can grow as much as 4x faster and be 2x more profitable than brands that stick to traditional marketing methods.

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