Adtech, media & martech startups in New York

Brian O'Kelley & Mike Nolet (legacy)

Founded Sept 2007 by Brian O'Kelley (a father of programmatic, ex-Right Media) and Mike Nolet in the Flatiron District. Built one of the largest independent real-time ad exchanges and DSP/SSP stacks. Acquire...

** NYC martech leader in SMS/conversational marketing (~$7B peak valuation); serial-founder team (ex-TapCommerce). Continued fundraising activity in 2025. Category-defining NYC marketing-tech scale-up.

NYC martech leader in SMS/conversational marketing (~$7B peak valuation); serial-founder team (ex-TapCommerce). Continued fundraising activity in 2025. Category-defining NYC marketing-tech scale-up. - **link...

Dave Portnoy

Founded 2003 by Dave Portnoy as a Boston print gambling sheet; **HQ-FLAG: originated in Milton/Boston, MA and relocated to NYC** after The Chernin Group's 2016 investment. Now a NYC-based sports-and-comedy d...

Tyler Denk, Benjamin Hargett & Jake Hurd

Founded 2021 by ex-Morning Brew engineers led by CEO Tyler Denk, beehiiv is a newsletter and creator-monetization platform positioning itself as 'the operating system for the creator economy.' Rapid growth (...

Oren Netzer & Alex Galai

Founded 2008 as a digital media measurement, verification and analytics platform covering fraud, viewability and brand safety/suitability. IPO'd on the NYSE (ticker DV) in April 2021 at a ~$4.2B market cap. ...

Ben Lerer (legacy)

Formed 2016 as a digital-media holding company uniting Thrillist, The Dodo, NowThis and Seeker under CEO Ben Lerer, briefly a NYC digital-media powerhouse and early SPAC-era roll-up. Acquired by Vox Media in...

Zvika Netter, Tal Chalozin & Zack Zigdon

Founded 2007, Innovid is an independent CTV ad-serving, creative and measurement platform serving 40%+ of the top-200 US TV advertisers. Went public on the NYSE (ticker CTV) via SPAC in Dec 2021 and acquired...

founded 2009 (as AdSafe Media)

Founded 2009 (originally AdSafe Media), IAS is a publicly traded ad-verification and media-quality company measuring fraud, viewability and brand risk via its proprietary TRAQ score. IPO'd on Nasdaq (IAS) in...

Harry Kargman

Founded 2003 by Harry Kargman, Kargo is a leader in mobile and cross-screen brand advertising, pairing creative, technology and quality inventory for premium advertisers. Bootstrapped for years before privat...

Joe Zawadzki (legacy)

Founded 2007 by Joe Zawadzki, MediaMath pioneered the demand-side platform (DSP) category and was a defining NYC adtech unicorn, raising ~$600M at a $1B+ peak valuation. Filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Ju...

Alex Lieberman & Austin Rief

Founded 2015 (out of University of Michigan, first newsletter 2015) by Alex Lieberman and Austin Rief, Morning Brew built a business-news newsletter empire with millions of subscribers. Acquired by Insider I...

Vivek Sharma & Michael Nutt

Founded 2010, Movable Ink powers AI-driven content personalization that assembles customized email, app and web creative in real time at open. Reached a reported ~$1.3B valuation with ~$73M+ ARR; raised from...

Dan Porter & Zack Weiner

Founded 2016 by Dan Porter (ex-WME head of digital) and Zack Weiner, Overtime is a Gen-Z sports-media brand that expanded into owned leagues — Overtime Elite (basketball) and OT7 (football). Raised ~$219M fr...

Jon Kelly, Joe Purzycki, Liz Gough, Julia Ioffe & Max Tcheyan

Founded 2021, Puck is a subscription digital-media company built around named-writer journalists covering the 'four centers of power' — Silicon Valley, Hollywood, Washington and Wall Street. A leading model ...

** NYC-based generative-AI video/media company. Raised $308M in April 2025 (~$3B+ valuation) and has raised $540M+ total (General Atlantic, Google, Nvidia, Coatue, Felicis, Amplify). In 2026 launched a $10M ...

NYC-based generative-AI video/media company. Raised $308M in April 2025 (~$3B+ valuation) and has raised $540M+ total (General Atlantic, Google, Nvidia, Coatue, Felicis, Amplify). In 2026 launched a $10M fun...

Ben Smith & Justin Smith

Founded 2022 by Ben Smith (ex-BuzzFeed News editor-in-chief, NYT media columnist) and Justin B. Smith (ex-CEO Bloomberg Media), Semafor is a global news startup with a distinctive 'Semaform' article structur...

Jon Oringer

Founded 2002 by programmer-photographer Jon Oringer, Shutterstock is a global stock photography, video, music and creative-tools marketplace (200M+ assets). IPO'd on the NYSE in 2012; expanded into AI/genera...

Dave Morgan

Founded 2008 by adtech veteran Dave Morgan (earlier founder of TACODA/Real Media), Simulmedia is a data-driven TV and streaming ad-targeting platform; its TV+ product buys across linear and CTV. Raised ~$87M...

Adam Singolda

Founded 2007 by Adam Singolda (still CEO). Runs a content-recommendation and native-advertising platform that places 'you may also like' feeds across thousands of publisher sites. Went public on Nasdaq in 20...

** NYC AI SaaS helping home-service SMBs run their online presence/marketing; closed a $27M Series B in Aug 2025 led by Northzone (Tactile Ventures, Industry Ventures). SMB-AI vertical software.

NYC AI SaaS helping home-service SMBs run their online presence/marketing; closed a $27M Series B in Aug 2025 led by Northzone (Tactile Ventures, Industry Ventures). SMB-AI vertical software. - **link:** htt...

Gary Vaynerchuk & AJ Vaynerchuk

Founded 2009 by Gary and AJ Vaynerchuk, VaynerMedia is a social-first global creative and media agency that helped define influencer/creator marketing and platform-native content. Now a multi-thousand-person...

Jake Lodwick & Zach Klein

Founded 2004 by Jake Lodwick and Zach Klein, Vimeo pivoted from a creator video-sharing site into a video-software/SaaS platform for businesses. Spun out of IAC as an independent public company (Nasdaq: VMEO...

Mike Yavonditte, Rick Eaton, Todd Coleman & Teddy Jawde

Founded 2012, Yieldmo is an attention-based advertising and ad-format platform that uses interactive creative formats and real-time signals (its 'Attention' and 'Curated' products) to optimize outcomes. Rais...