Centro moves closer to becoming the one-stop-shop for digital media buying

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A digital ad technology company in Chicago is quickly collecting the puzzle pieces it needs to become the leading one-stop-shop for automated digital media buying.

Hot off its $30 million Series B, Centro has announced it has acquired San Francisco-based social advertising startup GraphScience. Centro, which already delivers an automated, direct media-buying platform as well as a leading cross-channel and real-time bidding technology, now also adds GraphScience’s social ad capabilities to the mix.

“With the addition of GraphScience, we now own more puzzle pieces than any other software provider in the industry at this point,” said Shawn Riegsecker, CEO of Centro.

With GraphScience’s software, Centro’s enterprise customers can use social media data to create and optimize personalized Facebook ads in real time. That personalization leads to increased ROI for brands, according to Riegsecker, who added that social represents over 20 percent of all digital media buying today.

Founded in 2001, Centro has grown to a team of over 600 employees and maintains relationships with over 3,000 customers. They have 32 offices across North America, and Riegsecker said GraphScience’s ten-person force will join Centro’s growing team.

While the financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, Centro did say that it’s poised to manage about $400 million in digital ad spending this year alone.

And the acquisition of GraphScience will likely contribute to that goal.

“With all the companies we met with, we were convinced that GraphScience’s technology, along with their creative optimization and analytics, was by far the best choice for us,” Riegsecker said.

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