Outbrain Acquires Video Intelligence AG, Expands Brand & Video Offering

Outbrain Inc. has entered a definitive agreement to acquire video intelligence AG (“vi”), a Swiss-based contextual video technology platform for digital and Connected TV media owners. 

vi’s contextual and machine learning technology enables media owners to enhance user engagement and monetisation by adding relevant video content to articles. It also provides advertisers with high-impact, highly viewable, brand-safe video ad inventory that drives awareness and user engagement. Working with more than 1100 media owners around the world, ranging from IDG to Der Spiegel and Funke, vi’s solution is cookieless by design. In addition, vi recently entered the CTV space partnering with several premium providers including Samsung TV+ with a unique contextual offering. In 2021, vi was awarded Best Video Platform by Digiday.

“vi fits perfectly into Outbrain’s core strategy of providing media owners with technology to enhance user engagement and monetisation through relevant content and ads,” said David Kostman, Co-CEO of Outbrain. “The combination with vi will allow us to deepen our partnership with media owners, providing mid- and top-of-article video solutions. It will also expand our addressable market, introducing high-quality in-stream video inventory to support our brand advertisers. We see significant synergies between our companies and we are very excited to welcome the incredibly talented and experienced vi team to Outbrain” added Yaron Galai, Co-Founder and Co-CEO.

“We are delighted to join Outbrain, and become a core part of creating the leading video engagement platform,” said Kai Henniges, Co-Founder and CEO of vi. “Our years of video expertise and unique offering for publishers and CTV providers are a perfect addition to Outbrain’s leading market position and premium global media owner partnerships. Together we will accelerate our mission to inspire, inform and entertain users by putting video in context. We believe we have found a great match between our companies’ cultures and we share the same vision of the future of media.”

Outbrain will acquire vi for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $55 million (USD), funded by $46.75 million (USD) of balance sheet cash and 412,500 Outbrain shares. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2022 and is expected to be accretive in the first year. Progress Partners acted as exclusive M&A financial advisor to vi.