Ex.co

EX.CO
FormerlyPlaybuzz
Founded2012
FoundersTom Pachys, Shaul Olmert, Shachar Orren
Headquarters
New York City
Key people
Tom Pachys, CEO[1]
Shachar Orren, CMO/CRO
Yaniv Lubinski, CFO
Oren Regev, Chief Product Officer
Websiteex.co

EX.CO is a Disney-backed,[2] publisher video technology platform.[3] It is used by publishers such as Nasdaq and News UK[4] to help them manage their video strategy, including content and monetization.[5]

History

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EX.CO was originally founded as Playbuzz in 2012 by Shaul Olmert and Tom Pachys. Pachys is a graduate of IDC and also the co-founder of Whimado.

Playbuzz originally raised $3 million in a Series A funding round from Carmel Ventures.[6]

In September 2017, the company announced it had raised an additional $35 million in a Series C funding round led by Viola Group with participation from existing investors including the Walt Disney Company and Saban Ventures.[7][8] This brought Playbuzz's total funding to $66 million.[9]

In November 2019, Playbuzz changed its company name to EX.CO.[10] Shachar Orren was later named a co-founder of the company in 2021.[11]

In January 2024, EX․CO was chosen as the preferred video platform by the Local Media Consortium (LMC), a group focused on providing strategic partnerships for approximately 5,000 local media outlets including Bonneville International and WRAL.[12]

Acquisitions

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In 2021, EX.CO acquired video monetization technology company Cedato.[13]

In 2022, the company announced the acquisition of the machine-learning company Bibblio.[14]

Products

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In 2023, EX․CO announced new AI-driven content recommendations and premium video libraries for publishers which identify the most contextually relevant video for each article and the highest-yielding feed for a page on a publisher's site.[15]

In 2024, EX․CO launched a vertical video player for publishers' mobile and desktop websites to help monetize content.[16]

Awards

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1. 2022 Business Insider: Hottest Marketing Tech Companies of 2022[17]
2. 2023 Digiday Video & TV Awards: Best Digital Video Monetization Program [18]
3. 2024 Digiday Media Awards: Best Video Platform [19]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Playbuzz CEO Shaul Olmert to Step Down". Calcalist. 10 October 2019. Retrieved 31 December 2019.
  2. ^ Blount, Leslie (25 March 2022). "How Personalization Helped Alex and Ani Boost Conversions 65%". Adweek. Retrieved 29 April 2022.
  3. ^ Johnson, Lynne d (27 March 2023). "Ex.Co Gets Into the AI Content Recommendation Business: A Chat with CEO Tom Pachys". AdMonsters. Retrieved 2 May 2023.
  4. ^ Griffin, Rob (9 January 2024). "How online publishers can turn video into a top revenue earner". Press Gazette. Retrieved 24 July 2024.
  5. ^ Steigrad, Alexandra (20 June 2024). "How a top CMO keeps up with '5 meetings every hour' at Cannes Lions: 'My calendar looks insane'". Page Six. Retrieved 24 July 2024.
  6. ^ Kosoff, Maya (10 October 2014). "A BuzzFeed Clone Founded 10 Months Ago Is Crushing Other Websites On Facebook - Including BuzzFeed". The Business Insider. Retrieved 16 February 2015.
  7. ^ Shead, Sam (27 September 2017). "Playbuzz raised $35 million for its platform that aims to help publishers engage with the 'Snapchat generation'". The Business Insider. Retrieved 27 November 2017.
  8. ^ Marshall, Jack (27 September 2017). "Disney-backed Playbuzz raises $35 million to grow content creation platform". MarketWatch. Retrieved 27 November 2017.
  9. ^ Ellingson, Annlee (27 September 2017). "Disney invests more in accelerator graduate Playbuzz". L.A. Biz. Retrieved 27 November 2017.
  10. ^ Ha, Anthony (18 November 2019). "Playbuzz becomes Ex.co and expands its content marketing platform". Tech Crunch. Retrieved 27 February 2020.
  11. ^ Spiro, James (13 October 2021). "EX․CO appoints Shachar Orren as Co-Founder". CTECH. Retrieved 25 July 2024.
  12. ^ Lafayette, Jon (24 January 2024). "Local Media Consortium Picks Ex.Co Video Publishing Technology". Broadcasting + Cable. Retrieved 24 July 2024.
  13. ^ Ha, Anthony (22 April 2021). "EX.CO acquires video adtech company Cedato". TechCrunch. Retrieved 29 April 2022.
  14. ^ "EX.CO Acquires Machine-Learning Company Bibblio to Expand Website Personalization Capabilities for Brands, Publishers, and E-commerce Businesses". Martech Series. 12 April 2022. Retrieved 29 April 2022.
  15. ^ Johnson, Lynne d (27 March 2023). "Ex.Co Gets Into the AI Content Recommendation Business: A Chat with CEO Tom Pachys". AdMonsters. Retrieved 24 July 2024.
  16. ^ Meier, Dan (3 January 2024). "EX.CO Launches Vertical Video Player for Publishers". VideoWeek. Retrieved 24 July 2024.
  17. ^ Johnson, Lauren (28 November 2022). "The hottest marketing tech companies of 2022". Business Insider. Retrieved 24 July 2024.
  18. ^ Awards, Digiday (7 March 2023). "PlayStation and MOCEAN, PinkNews, TheSoul Publishing and INNOCEAN USA are 2023 Digiday Video and TV Award winners". Digiday. Retrieved 24 July 2024.
  19. ^ Awards, Digiday (14 May 2024). "Salesforce, TIME and Fortune Media are among this year's Digiday Media Awards winners". Digiday. Retrieved 24 July 2024.
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