Acast

Acast is a Swedish-founded company that provides hosting, monetization and growth support to podcasts. In 2014, it invented the now widely-adopted dynamic insertion technology which can target advertising within podcasts based on location, time, and any personal data they have, on any listening device. Acast was founded by Karl Rosander and Måns Ulvestam in 2013;[1] with Johan Billgren as co-founder, amongst others.[2]

When launched in April 2014.[3] Ulvestam wrote at the time, “So, if McDonalds want to advertise at lunch-time in New York, we can sell that same slot, on the same RSS-feed, to Burger King in LA when it is noon there.”[4] The company has offices in New York, Los Angeles, London, Sydney, Stockholm, Oslo, Paris, Berlin, Mexico City and Dublin.

The platform distributes, monetizes and markets podcasts including My Dad Wrote A Porno, The Adam Buxton Podcast and Sh*gged Married Annoyed as well as publishers including The Guardian, The Economist, VICE, Vogue and the Financial Times.[5] As of September 2020, the platform had over 250 million listens per month.

Acast currently hosts over 70% of commercial podcasts broadcast in the UK. The platform enables producers to host podcasts for free and monetise them via its ad-supported platform. Clean advert breaks can be inserted to ensure the flow of an episode is not disrupted. It also enables digital publishers to easily insert ads targeting niche audiences.[6]

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

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, which is owned by serial entrepreneur Kaj Hed, majority owner of Rovio Entertainment, creators of Angry Birds.[6]

In December 2018 the company raised $35 million from AP1, Ny Teknik, and Microcap in Series C funding. This has brought total funding to more than $67 million.[7]

The European Investment Bank invested €25 million in Acast in 2019.[8]

Noteworthy Podcasts on Acast

References
  1. "Podcasts were guys talking about tech, then along came Serial". the Guardian. 2017-07-31. Retrieved 2020-11-25.
  2. "Få spinn på din försäljning på Amazon – experten ger dig supertipsen". Breakit (in Swedish). Retrieved 2020-11-25.
  3. Telegraph, April 2015 https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/11513025/How-Serial-shook-up-the-podcasting-industry.html
  4. "Stockholm Startup Acast Solves Podcasters' Advertising Problem". 2015-06-12. Retrieved 2016-09-21.
  5. The Wall Street Journal, "Podcasts Experiment With Paid Subscriptions," May 23, 2016, https://www.wsj.com/articles/podcasts-experiment-with-paid-subscriptions-1463997601
  6. The Independent, May 2015 https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/podcast-boom-in-serials-wake-sees-acast-record-5m-funding-10257029.html
  7. "Acast raises $35M to help podcasters make money". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2018-12-05.
  8. "Infrastructure for an era of crisis". European Investment Bank. Retrieved 2020-08-24.
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