By Ronan Shields • June 11, 2025 •
Ivy Liu
Index Trade’s funding arm, IX Labs, has introduced a “multimillion-dollar” partnership take care of funding fund First Social gathering Capital, an additional signal of scaled advert tech corporations seeking to startup investments to future-proof their methods.
The duo declined to publicize the particular funding whole, though the partnership comes as FirstPartyCapital launches Fund 2 with a goal measurement of £50 million ($67.5 million) to put money into early-stage advert tech and martech corporations seeking to develop internationally.
As a part of the tie-up with IX Labs, Index Trade has dedicated to a decade-long partnership with FirstPartyCapital, with the advert tech outfit additionally providing to collaborate with outfits throughout the fund’s portfolio, corresponding to Bedrock, LightboxTV, and Lumen, on infrastructure companies, deeper integration with its platform, and go-to-market technique.
Wealthy Ashton, FirstPartyCapital’s co-founder and managing companion, highlighted industry-specific macroeconomic traits, such because the Justice Division’s bid(s) to dismantle Google beneath antitrust legal guidelines, as a sign of how the tectonic plates of the {industry} are at present shifting, which equates to alternative.
“It’s the good time to put money into the advert tech {industry}, with the DOJ pushing to interrupt up Google’s advert tech monopoly and booming traits corresponding to retail media and AI are paving the best way for the following wave of digital promoting,” he stated in a press release.
In the meantime, Index Trade, which rebranded from Casale Media within the mid-2010s to sign its subsequent iteration, i.e., into one of many {industry}’s largest supply-side platforms, is characterizing the partnership as an vital indication of its intent to evolve additional.
Mayuran Yogarajah, head of IX Labs and an engineer at Index Trade, defined how shifts throughout the {industry}, together with adjustments in sign loss, a need to scale back the advert tech tax, and platform technique, have knowledgeable Index Trade’s funding thesis.
“I feel quite a lot of the worth creation has occurred traditionally on the buy-side, it’s been like that for fairly some time,” he advised Digiday, noting how areas corresponding to media-measurement are areas of explicit curiosity to the corporate. “We predict this is a chance for the following era of corporations to create worth on the promote aspect of issues… that’s what we’re calling sell-side decisioning.”
IX Labs’ newest partnership mirrors related strikes from its friends within the advert tech sector, with DoubleVerify making a $1 million dedication with FirstPartyCapital earlier within the yr.
In the meantime, The Commerce Desk’s 2023 funding in Sincera, through its funding arm TD7, later developed right into a uncommon buy from the demand-side platform earlier this yr after execs there felt a full-on acquisition would assist its push to encourage shopping for advertisements on the “premium web.”
IX Labs’ Yogarajah hinted at parallels with Index Trade’s technique, whereby aiding companions, corresponding to startups throughout the FirstPartyCapital portfolio, may help their evolution plans. “We’re considerably of an infrastructure firm,” he stated, referencing pre-existing partnerships corresponding to its tie-ups with entities corresponding to Chalice and Cognitiv.
“This [latest partnership] is greater than a capital-injection… we see it as us making a structured pathway for these corporations to construct of high of Index’s platform… as an increasing number of of those corporations create choices and companies on the sell-side, we need to develop into the platform of alternative that they appear to,” Yogarajah stated.
https://digiday.com/?p=580611