Recognified founders sell to Spanish company

Contextual advertising is likely to become the successor to cookies. Now two companies in this technology have joined forces: Seedtag is buying the Munich-based start-up Recognified.

The three founders of the Munich-based start-up Recognified are selling their company to the Madrid-based advertising specialist Seedtag for an undisclosed sum. Recognified works on contextual advertising, a concept that will become important in the near future:

Google wants to block third-party cookies from 2022, other cookies are also controversial and users have more and more options to opt out of tracking.

Contextual advertising works by recognizing editorial content, for example, and incorporating advertising into it. This means that user data does not have to be intercepted, but advertising is placed by AI where users appear to be most receptive. Seedtag and Recognified are both working with this technology, and the merger will lead to more international strength and "exceptional high-impact ads for our customers", Jan-Philipp Kröll, one of the founders of Recognified, told the Handelsblatt. "With Seedtag, we not only share the same product and complementary technology, but also have the same ambitious ambitions."

Recognified has 14 employees in Munich and Düsseldorf, Seedtag, founded by two former Google employees, has 170 employees and is present in nine locations.