Programmatic Advertising Company AdTheorent Announces SPAC Deal; Palantir Investment In PIPE

An advertising company that uses machine learning announced a SPAC merger to go public Tuesday morning.

The SPAC Deal: AdTheorent announced it will go public with MCAP Acquisition Corporation MACQ. The deal values the company at an enterprise value of $775 million.

An oversubscribed PIPE includes investments from companies that include Palantir Technologies PLTR.

Public MACQ shareholders will own 29.7% of the company after the merger.

About AdTheorent: Using a privacy-forward programmatic digital advertising platform, AdTheorent is targeting the growing targeted advertising market. The company offers advertiser-specific business outcomes for top consumer brands.

“Since 2012 we have pioneered a new way to target digital ads programmatically without relying on user-specific personal profiles and individualized data,” said AdTheorent CEO Jim Lawson.

AdTheorent is able to optimize ad targeting by evaluating predictive scores for over 87 billion daily impressions.

The company counts a roster of some of the largest companies across a diverse range of sectors including healthcare/pharmaceutical, banking, government, education, retail, dining and travel/hospitality.

Companies mentioned that are customers of AdTheorent are Abbvie, Capital One, Home Depot, Progressive, Sanofi and McDonald’s. AdTheorent has 280 customers that represent annual spending of $500,000 or more.

Related Link: 5 SPACs To Watch In The Second Half Of 2021

Growth Ahead: Digital media spending is expected to pass $171 billion in the U.S. in 2021. Programmatic digital spending in the U.S. is a $90 billion market in 2021 with growth expected of 17.6% annually from fiscal 2020 to fiscal 2024.

The company lists the growth of connected television advertising spend as an opportunity that is in the early stages. Capital raised from the SPAC merger will help fund AdTheorent’s growth plans, which include international expansion and acquisitions.

The European programmatic advertising market is expected to hit $48 billion by 2024.

Financials: Adjusted revenue for the company was up 34% year-over-year in the first quarter of fiscal 2021. The company is estimating fiscal 2021 adjusted revenue to hit $102.4 million.

Fiscal 2020 adjusted revenue was $78.9 million for the company.

The company has a history of profitability with margin expansion over the last four years. Adjusted EBITDA margins are tracking toward 30% for fiscal 2021.

MACQ Price Action: MACQ shares are up 2% to $9.83 on Tuesday.