Adwanted Group x Swen Capital Partners x Financière Arbevel

Swen Capital Partners and Financière Arbevel support Adwanted Group in a new €15 million financing round.

The development of Adwanted Group, founded in 2012, is based on an offensive strategy of complementary and targeted acquisitions allowing it to reach critical size more quickly and to create numerous commercial and technological synergies. From a transactional solution provider, Adwanted Group has become one of the leading software providers in the advertising industry (media planning, ad intelligence, data, inventory management, news media).

Previously backed by international business angels, Adwanted Group marks a turning point with the arrival of Financière Arbevel and Swen Capital Partners, who doubled its size with the acquisition of Mediatel Limited in the UK. Mediatel’s services and technologies complement Adwanted Group’s offering, which is structured around three categories: “Buy Side” (DSP, media planning, events, etc.); “Sell Side” (SSP/booking software, on-air conductors, events, etc.); and “Data”, which brings together audience data and the information tools needed to decipher it. The acquisition of Mediatel allows Adwanted to strengthen its international presence and to export its technology and data solutions to the UK, where it was not yet present.

IPO around 2024

“Our plan is very clear and we are aiming for an IPO within 3 – 4 years in order to realise our ambition to go from being a regional provider of advertising technology to becoming a global leader” says Emmanuel Debuyck, its founder. The advertising software market is highly fragmented, with a few players largely dominating the digital advertising segment; but the ‘traditional’ market is consolidating, with the sustained pace carried by Adwanted Group.

We aggregate within the group the national champions in a world where standardisation is not present (contrary to digital advertising), while the buying press releases demand it. The same goes for the media, which must now facilitate access to their traditional inventories to avoid the rush to digital, which is very easy to buy, but whose performance scores are still far from matching those “traditional” media that are totally reinventing themselves. “What is interesting is that the more we develop, the more we play the role of a magnet: since the end of last year, no less than 10 companies have approached us with the idea of integrating them into our system,” adds Emmanuel Debuyck. Swen Capital Partners and Financière Arbevel will help the group to further solidify and structure this development, allowing the company to access new markets or make targeted acquisitions more quickly.

Adwanted Group is now looking to strengthen its position in the United States, with Germany as a next step to expand its European presence. To become a global leader in advertising industry technology. Thanks to this acquisition, Adwanted Group now has a turnover of 20 M€ and is based on a solid tripod in France, the United States and the United Kingdom. It intends to consolidate its positions in these regions and in Europe via new external growth. Targets are already being considered. Emmanuel Debuyck, CEO of the Adwanted Group, said: “Joining Mediatel is a way for us to pursue our business objective of providing the media industry with a global standard. Being in France and the US is obviously a good place to start, but playing on a global stage also requires a strong footprint in the UK, before any further expansion. We are now in three of the biggest advertising markets in the world.