Acast

Last updated
Acast
Company type Public
Nasdaq First North:  ACAST
Industry
Founded2014;10 years ago (2014)
Founder
  • Karl Rosander
  • Måns Ulvestam
Headquarters
Stockholm
,
Sweden
Area served
Worldwide
Services
  • media
  • data and insights
  • production
Number of employees
386 [1]
Subsidiaries Podchaser,
  • RadioPublic
Website acast.com

Acast is a Swedish-founded company that provides hosting, monetization and growth support for podcasts, and podcast advertising solutions for brands and media agencies. Launching in 2014, [2] it developed a dynamic insertion technology which can target advertising within podcasts based on location, time, and personal data. [3] The company champions an independent and open ecosystem for podcasting, where podcasts hosted with Acast are available on all podcast listening apps. [4] Acast was founded by Karl Rosander  [ sv ] and Måns Ulvestam in 2014; [5] [6] together with Johan Billgren as co-founder. [7] Acast hosts over 88,000 podcasts, with over 430 million listens every month. The company operates worldwide with a physical presence in 15 countries, and has its headquarters in Stockholm. [8]

Contents

In addition to the founders, Bonnier has also invested in the company. [9] In 2018, additional investors had stepped in with more than $67 million. In 2019, the European Investment Bank invested 25 million euros in Acast, [10] and on June 17, 2021, Acast was listed on the Nasdaq First North Premier Market at a valuation of approximately SEK 7 billion. [11]

Acast enables digital publishers to insert ads targeting niche audiences. [12] [13] The platform distributes, monetizes and markets podcasts including My Dad Wrote A Porno, The Adam Buxton Podcast and Shagged Married Annoyed, as well as publishers including The Guardian , The Economist , Vice , Vogue and the Financial Times . [14] [15]

History

In 2014, four months after launch, Acast was named Start-up of the Year by IDG magazine, Internetworld , [16] and ‘Most innovative media service’ at mobile industry awards Mobilgalan  [ sv ]. [17]

In May 2015, Acast closed a $5m Series A funding round, led by Bonnier Growth Media. This was supplemented by an undisclosed follow-on investment from early-stage venture capital firm MOOR, owned by Kaj Hed, majority owner of Rovio Entertainment. [12] [18]

In 2016, Acast launched a paid subscription service called Acast+. [19]

In December 2018 the company raised $35 million from AP1 and Swedbank Robur (sv) funds Ny Teknik and Microcap in Series C funding. This has brought total funding to more than $67 million. [20] In 2019, Acast acquired Pippa, another podcast hosting platform. [21]

Since 2019, Acast has offered a free hosting tier for podcasts. [22] The European Investment Bank invested €25 million in Acast in 2019. [23]

In early 2021, Acast announced the acquisition of RadioPublic, a Boston-based startup founded by the public radio organization PRX. [24] [25]

In April 2021, rumours about an IPO on Nasdaq Stockholm surfaced. [26] Founders Rosander and Ulvestam sold their last shares earlier in 2021, to fund their new startup Sesamy  [ sv ]. [27] Queerstories joined the Acast Creator Network in May 2021. [28] [29] [30]

In March 2022, Acast announced that they would be discontinuing their podcast client app. The company cited its decreased importance as a source of user data and their preference for platform-independence in the decision. [31] [32]

In July 2022, Acast signed an agreement to acquire Podchaser, a platform-agnostic podcast database with user reviews, for $27 million by August 2022. [33] [34] [35]

In August 2022, Acast was ranked #2 in Podtrac's ranking of ad sales networks for podcasts in the US. [36]

In November 2022, Acast entered into a partnership with Amazon. Through the agreement Amazon Music bought all advertising space for thousands of Acast's podcasts, allowing Amazon customers to listen to those shows ad-free. [37]

In February 2024, RadioPublic announced their app would close permanently at the end of March. [38] After that date, RadioPublic show links began redirecting to the same shows on Podchaser.

Notable podcasts hosted by Acast

Present

Past

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Salesforce</span> American software company

Salesforce, Inc. is an American cloud-based software company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It provides customer relationship management (CRM) software and applications focused on sales, customer service, marketing automation, e-commerce, analytics, and application development.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jason Calacanis</span> American businessman

Jason McCabe Calacanis is an American Internet entrepreneur, angel investor, author and podcaster.

Spotify is a Swedish audio streaming and media service provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 602 million monthly active users, including 236 million paying subscribers, as of December 2023. Spotify is listed on the New York Stock Exchange in the form of American depositary receipts.

Greycroft is an American venture capital firm. It manages over $2 billion in capital with investments in companies such as Bird, Bumble, HuffPost, Goop, Scopely, The RealReal, and Venmo. Greycroft was founded in 2006 by Alan Patricof, Dana Settle, and Ian Sigalow. The firm is headquartered in New York City and Los Angeles.

Klarna Bank AB, commonly referred to as Klarna, is a Swedish fintech company that provides online financial services. The company provides payment processing services for the e-commerce industry, managing store claims and customer payments. The company is a "buy now, pay later" service provider.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leah Culver</span> American computer scientist and entrepreneur

Leah Culver is a computer programmer, startup founder, and angel investor.

Twilio Inc. is an American cloud communications company based in San Francisco, California, which provides programmable communication tools for making and receiving phone calls, sending and receiving text messages, and performing other communication functions using its web service APIs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stripe, Inc.</span> Irish-American multinational financial services and SaaS company

Stripe, Inc. is an Irish-American multinational financial services and software as a service (SaaS) company dual-headquartered in South San Francisco, California, United States and Dublin, Ireland. The company primarily offers payment-processing software and application programming interfaces for e-commerce websites and mobile applications.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">AngelList</span> Website connecting startups, angel investors, and job-seekers

AngelList is an American software company for fundraising and connecting startups, angel investors, and limited partners. Founded in 2010, it started as an online introduction board for tech startups that needed seed funding. Since 2015, the site allows startups to raise money from angel investors free of charge. Created by serial entrepreneur Naval Ravikant and Babak Nivi in 2010, Avlok Kohli has been leading AngelList as its CEO since 2019.

WillCall was a San Francisco-based startup company offering a mobile app for iPhone and Android devices that allowed users to gain admission to live concerts, tip artists, and purchase merchandise during a show. It was named one of the Hottest Startups of 2013 by Forbes. Since its inception, the company had become known for editorial curation, a UX driven product strategy, and social networking integration. It had been called "an Uber for nightlife — one that makes everything from attending shows to buying drinks and merchandise much easier," by TechCrunch.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Product Hunt</span> American product discovery website

Product Hunt is an American website to share and discover new products. It was founded by Ryan Hoover in November 2013.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deliv</span> Former American same-day delivery company

Deliv Inc. was a Menlo Park-based crowdshipping, same-day delivery startup Deliv provided last mile transportation services. Deliv was founded in 2012 by Daphne Carmeli, who also ws CEO of the company, and offered same-day service to mall shoppers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wondery</span> American podcast network

Wondery is an American podcast network and publisher of podcasts including Dirty John, Dr. Death, and The Shrink Next Door. Wondery was founded in 2016 by entrepreneur and media executive Hernan Lopez. The company was launched with backing from 20th Century Fox. In late 2020, it was announced that Wondery had been purchased by Amazon Music.

Docker, Inc. is an American technology company that develops productivity tools built around Docker, which automates the deployment of code inside software containers. Major commercial products of the company are Docker Hub, a central repository of containers, Docker Desktop, a GUI application for Windows and Mac to manage containers. The historic offering was Docker Enterprise PaaS business, acquired by Mirantis. The company is also an active contributor to various CNCF projects, such as containerd and runC. The main open source offering of the company are Docker Engine and buildkit which are rebranded under the Moby umbrella project. The core specification, Dockerfile, still includes the company trademark, however.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Qualcomm Ventures</span> Investment arm of Qualcomm

Qualcomm Ventures is the investment arm of Qualcomm Incorporated. Founded in 2000, Qualcomm Ventures is a corporate venture capital fund with 140+ active portfolio companies. Investing in startups targeting the wireless ecosystem, the group focuses on investments in the sectors of automotive, data center and enterprise, digital health, Internet of Things (IoT), and mobile.

Mentimeter is a Swedish company based in Stockholm that develops and maintains an eponymous app used to create presentations with real-time feedback.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Freestyle Capital</span> Venture capital firm

Freestyle Capital is an early-stage venture capital firm based in San Francisco, California. General Partners Dave Samuel and Jenny Lefcourt are both entrepreneurs who entered venture capital after founding multiple companies. The firm was founded in 2009 and typically invests in 10-12 companies per year with an average investment between $1.5 million to $3 million. Previous investments include Intercom, Patreon, Narvar, Digit, Betterup, Airtable and Snapdocs.

References

  1. ↑ "Acast Interim report January – March 2022" (PDF). Acast. Retrieved 23 July 2022.
  2. ↑ "Acast öppnar för reklam i podden - Dagens Media". 2015-02-01. Archived from the original on 2015-02-01. Retrieved 2022-11-29.
  3. ↑ Dale, Brady (12 June 2015). "Stockholm Startup Acast Solves Podcasters' Advertising Problem". Observer.
  4. ↑ Sinclair, Sophia (2020-09-23). "Acasts kamp för att fortsätta dominera poddvärlden". Svenska Dagbladet (in Swedish). ISSN   1101-2412 . Retrieved 2022-11-29.
  5. ↑ "Podcast platform Acast raises $19.5 mln to fund expansion, boost staff". Reuters. 20 September 2017.
  6. ↑ "Podcasts were guys talking about tech, then along came Serial". the Guardian. 2017-07-31. Retrieved 2020-11-25.
  7. ↑ "Få spinn på din försäljning på Amazon – experten ger dig supertipsen". Breakit (in Swedish). Retrieved 2020-11-25.
  8. ↑ "Acast lanserar Keyword Targeting och öppnar upp nya möjligheter för podcastannonsering". investors.acast.com. 2022-11-15. Retrieved 2022-11-29.
  9. ↑ Redaktionen (15 February 2022). "Bonnier Ventures köper aktier i Acast för 150 miljoner" (in Swedish). Retrieved 2022-11-29.
  10. ↑ Ha, Anthony (2018-12-05). "Acast raises $35M to help podcasters make money". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2022-11-29.
  11. ↑ WendelText, Analys:Johan (2021-06-11). "Ledningen de största vinnarna när Acast noteras". Dagens industri (in Swedish). Retrieved 2022-11-29.
  12. 1 2 Lawson, Alex (18 May 2015). "After Serial, funding pours into podcasting" . The Independent. Archived from the original on 2021-05-22.
  13. ↑ Cellan-Jones, Rory (19 August 2016). "Can podcasts turn a profit?". BBC News.
  14. ↑ "Acast Sets Its Sights On Smaller Podcasters". Insideradio.com. 21 November 2019.
  15. ↑ Thiessen, Connie (25 November 2019). "Acast to sell CBC/Radio-Canada podcast slate globally". Broadcast Dialogue.
  16. ↑ "Startuplistan 2014: Här är årets vinnare". Internetworld (in Swedish). 31 October 2014. Archived from the original on 3 November 2014.
  17. ↑ "Guldmobilen: här är bilderna på årets vinnare". Mobil (in Swedish). 7 November 2014.
  18. ↑ Schweizer, Kristen (9 November 2015). "Swedish Startup Rides 'Serial' Wave Taking Podcast App to U.S." Bloomberg.
  19. ↑ Perlberg, Steven (23 May 2016). "Podcasts Experiment With Paid Subscriptions". Wall Street Journal.
  20. ↑ "Acast raises $35M to help podcasters make money". TechCrunch. 5 December 2018. Retrieved 2018-12-05.
  21. ↑ Stories, Acast: For The (2019-05-02). "ACAST, THE LARGEST GLOBAL PODCAST COMPANY, ACQUIRES PIPPA". Acast. Retrieved 2021-12-03.
  22. ↑ "Acast introduces free option to host podcasts". RadioToday. 21 November 2019.
  23. ↑ "Infrastructure for an era of crisis". European Investment Bank. Retrieved 2020-08-24.
  24. ↑ "Acast acquires podcasting startup RadioPublic". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2022-05-03.
  25. ↑ Bloom, David. "Podcast Distributor Acast Buys PRX Tech Spinoff RadioPublic". Forbes. Retrieved 2022-05-03.
  26. ↑ Nordenstam, Sven; Karlsson, Johannes (2021-04-22). "Acast på väg till börsen – kan värderas till över 5 miljarder". Dagens industri (in Swedish).
  27. ↑ Wisterberg, Erik (2021-03-31). ""Ska riva ned varenda betalvägg som finns"". Svenska Dagbladet (in Swedish). ISSN   1101-2412 . Retrieved 2021-04-30.
  28. ↑ Cheik-Hussein, Mariam (21 May 2021). "Queerstories podcast joins Acast". AdNews. Retrieved 23 May 2021.
  29. ↑ "F.Y.I.Podcast Queerstories joins Acast Creator Network for season 3". Mumbrella. 19 May 2021. Retrieved 23 May 2021.
  30. ↑ "Queerstories Podcast Joins Acast Creator Network For Season 3". B&T. 19 May 2021. Retrieved 23 May 2021.
  31. ↑ "Acast to shut down its podcast app". PodcastingToday. 4 March 2022.
  32. ↑ "Acast Is Shutting Down Its Own App In The Name Of An Open Podcast Ecosystem". Insideradio.com. 3 March 2022.
  33. ↑ "Acast acquires podcast database Podchaser". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2022-07-18.
  34. ↑ "Acast Acquires Podchaser – The World's Most Comprehensive Podcast Database". Investors.Acast.com. Acast. 2022-07-18. Retrieved 2022-07-18.
  35. ↑ "Podchaser Joins Acast | Articles on Podchaser". Podchaser. Retrieved 2022-07-18.
  36. ↑ "Podtrac Launches New Podcast Sales Network Ranking". podnews.net. 2022-10-19. Retrieved 2022-11-29.
  37. ↑ EkText, Henrik (2022-11-03). "Acast i nytt samarbete med Amazon – aktien rusar". Dagens industri (in Swedish). Retrieved 2022-11-29.
  38. ↑ "RadioPublic is Shutting Down". RadioPublic. 2024-02-21. Archived from the original on 2024-03-19. Retrieved 2024-04-14.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.