What Chalk Digital does

Chalk Digital, founded in 2013 and headquartered in San Diego, California, is a privately held ad-tech company that operates a mobile-first advertising-as-a-service (AaaS) platform. The company's core technology combines geo-location data, physical address matching, and device movement analytics to deliver location-based advertising without reliance on cookies, processing over 30 billion ad requests per day across 100,000 monitored applications. Its proprietary CHALK Identify Marketing (CDM) platform and MAGNET module enable advertisers to match audiences by home/business address and target across devices, while the Agency Ad Manager provides white-label programmatic capabilities (DSP, SSP, DMP) for agencies managing multiple clients.

Chalk Digital serves three primary customer segments: small and medium businesses (SMBs), advertising agencies, and real estate professionals, with a secondary footprint in Japan serving yoga instructors and fitness professionals via AI-powered apps. Revenue is generated through a mix of recurring platform subscriptions (monthly and annual), usage-based impression billing, tiered unit pricing for app-based ad delivery, and one-time setup fees. The company monetizes through self-serve web onboarding, agency white-label deployments, mobile app distribution (CHALKSMAKO, YOGA CHALKSMAKO, Ad-a-Pet, Showcase, Tempo), and direct sales for enterprise accounts, supported by offices in San Diego, San Mateo, Tokyo (Chalk Digital, K.K.), and Delhi.

The company has pursued geographic and product expansion through the 2017 Japan restructuring, the 2023 Unique Homes acquisition from duPont Publishing for luxury real estate marketing, and the 2023 Canadian partnership with Tapped Mobile. AI capabilities span generative ad creative (text, image, video), proprietary impression prediction (avails technology), and RTB optimization. Despite processing substantial ad request volumes, total disclosed funding is approximately $4.27M across three rounds in 2015-2018, indicating a lean, founder-controlled operating model.

Name

Chalk Digital

Legal name

Chalk Digital, Inc.

Website

https://chalkdigital.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2013

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Chalk Digital operates a mobile advertising-as-a-service platform with geo-location and physical-address-based audience targeting, processing 30+ billion ad requests daily. It serves SMBs, agencies, and real estate clients across the US, Japan, India, and Canada.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Programmatic Mobile Advertising Platform

SIC

Services-Advertising Agencies (7311)

akta.pro primary industry

Programmatic Display & Retargeting (DSP) (MPAAACAE)

akta.pro secondary industry

Programmatic Display & Video (DSP/RTB) (BPAFACAC)

Keywords

• Programmatic advertising platform
• Mobile ad tech
• Geo-targeted advertising
• Advertising automation software
• Agency ad management

Headquarters

HQ city

San Diego

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices5 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Platform Subscriptions: Monthly and annual subscription plans for access to advertising platform. Monthly subscriptions auto-renew for 30-day periods. Annual subscriptions billed annually in advance with auto-renewal.
2. Advertising Impressions: Usage-based billing where advertisers pay based on ad impressions delivered. Pricing tied to delivery of impressions, visits, audience reach, or campaign performance metrics.
3. App-Based Ad Delivery: CHALKSMAKO and YOGA CHALKSMAKO apps offer fixed-price tiers for ad delivery (5,000, 10,000, 30,000 impressions for banners; 500, 1,000, 3,000 for video).
4. Platform and Setup Fees: Non-refundable platform and setup fees charged for account creation and onboarding. These are separate from subscription fees.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Chalk Digital provides a self-serve programmatic advertising-as-a-service (AaaS) platform that enables advertisers, agencies, and small businesses to create, launch, and measure location-based mobile ad campaigns in minutes. The integrated DSP/SSP/DMP stack delivers geo-targeted display, video, native, CTV, and audio ads across 100,000+ apps and websites, with proprietary audience matching by physical address and device movements and real-time heatmap reporting.

Product overview

Chalk Digital is a mobile-first advertising-as-a-service (AaaS) platform that democratizes digital advertising through a unified platform-plus-apps architecture. The core CHALK Platform provides programmatic advertising with geo-location targeting, audience matching, and real-time bidding capabilities, processing over 30 billion ad requests daily. The platform is complemented by specialized solutions including the Agency Ad Manager for agency clients requiring white-label and advanced bidding features; the Automated Ad Builder for SMBs and franchises; and MAGNET for contact-based CRM-integrated targeting. In Japan, chalk_spreAD serves as the primary AI-powered platform with impression prediction (avails) and creative evaluation tools. Consumer-facing mobile apps include CHALKSMAKO and YOGA CHALKSMAKO for AI-powered ad creation, Ad-a-Pet for shelter advertising, Tempo for weather services, Showcase for real-time campaign transparency, and CD Opt-Out for privacy controls. The June 2023 acquisition of Unique Homes (luxury property magazine) enables combined print-plus-digital marketing campaigns. The platform supports display, video, native, connected TV (CTV), and audio advertising across mobile apps, websites, and streaming platforms.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• chalk_spreAD: Smart and efficient marketing platform for advertising delivery, enabling users to create and launch ads in 3 minutes through 6 steps.
• Ad-a-Pet
• CD Opt-Out
• CHALKSMAKO
• YOGA CHALKSMAKO
• Showcase
• Tempo
• MAGNET
• Agency Ad Manager
• Automated Ad Builder

Products and services

• CHALK Platform Core advertising-as-a-service (AaaS) platform providing instant geo ad creation and delivery, combining geo-location and audience data with automated marketing and targeting solutions for always-on prospecting, transparent heatmap reporting, and campaign archival for remarketing.
• Agency Ad Manager White-label advertising platform for agencies to create, publish, and manage multi-channel ad campaigns (display, video, native, and mobile) with real-time bidding, custom geo-fencing, and audience targeting capabilities.
• Automated Ad Builder Do-it-yourself advertising platform for franchises and local operators to automatically create and launch mobile ad campaigns showcasing products across apps and websites, with automated reporting and retargeting capabilities.
• MAGNET Contact-based marketing platform that converts leads (email or physical address) into IP addresses for multi-device digital targeting at home and office without cookie tracking, integrating with CRM systems for always-on contact marketing.
• chalk_spreAD

Quantifiable outcome

• 3x more qualified leads for real estate agency using programmatic campaigns
• +5 more outcomes

Named customers6 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles6 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration3 records

AI capability9 records

Feature6 records

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Tapped MobilecoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 8 June 2023Partnership with Toronto-based Tapped Mobile to provide ad-buying and targeting platform to Canadian SMBs and agencies. First time Chalk Digital partnered with a Canadian company. Targets businesses with daily budgets of $10-$50 and agencies serving both large and small clients.
• duPont PublishingcoreOthers · 8 June 2023Acquisition of Unique Homes luxury property magazine from duPont Publishing. Strategic acquisition to integrate digital technology into luxury real estate marketing and extend visibility for luxury properties.
• DentsuminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerChalk works with Dentsu in Asia for advertising operations. Strategic partnership for Asian market expansion and client acquisition.
• Better Homes and Gardens (BHHS)coreGTM or Marketing PartnerBHHS Sales Conventions and Summit events sponsored and hosted by Chalk Digital. Long-standing partnership with real estate franchise network for advertising platform deployment.

Scale indicators11 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• The Trade Desk: The Trade Desk is the leading independent programmatic DSP serving agencies and brands globally. Chalk Digital's Agency Ad Manager targets the same agency and mid-market advertiser segments with a white-label DSP/SSP/DMP stack, competing on geo-targeting and SMB accessibility where TTD is less focused.
• Yahoo Advertising (DSP): Yahoo Advertising operates a programmatic DSP offering native, display, video, and connected-TV buying for agencies and advertisers. As a broader incumbent, it competes with Chalk's Agency Ad Manager in the agency and brand-side programmatic market with deeper data and supply integration.

Direct peers

• StackAdapt: StackAdapt is a multi-channel programmatic DSP serving agencies and mid-market advertisers with native, display, video, and CTV buying. Like Chalk Digital, it emphasizes self-service accessibility, geo-targeting, and agency white-labeling, making it a close direct competitor in the SMB-to-mid-market DSP segment.
• Simpli.fi: Simpli.fi operates a programmatic DSP specialized in hyper-local geo-targeting for agencies, brands, and SMBs across display, video, CTV, and mobile. Chalk's CHALK Identify Marketing and MAGNET both target the same hyper-local, address-based use cases that Simpli.fi pioneered.
• MediaMath: MediaMath is an enterprise programmatic DSP offering supply-side optimization and audience targeting for agencies and brands. Although MediaMath focuses on enterprise tiers, it directly competes with Chalk's Agency Ad Manager for agency media-buy budgets.
• Choozle: Choozle is a self-serve programmatic DSP built for agencies and SMB advertisers with no minimum buys. It is one of the closest analogues to Chalk's self-serve CHALK Platform and Automated Ad Builder, both targeting the same underserved SMB programmatic segment.
• Basis Technologies (formerly Centro): Basis Technologies provides a programmatic advertising platform with DSP, workflow automation, and agency-focused tools. It overlaps directly with Chalk's Agency Ad Manager across agency media-buying workflows and managed-service programmatic.
• AdRoll: AdRoll is a self-serve programmatic retargeting and prospecting platform purpose-built for SMBs and DTC brands. It directly competes with Chalk's Automated Ad Builder on SMB-friendly ad creation, retargeting, and ease of use for small advertisers.
• SmartAdServer: SmartAdServer provides an all-in-one programmatic ad monetization and buying platform with DSP and SSP capabilities for agencies and publishers. Its full DSP/SSP stack mirrors Chalk's Agency Ad Manager architecture and serves similar mid-market agency clients.

Others

• Lotame: Lotame is a leading data management platform (DMP) and identity-resolution provider. While it does not operate a buying UI, its DMP integrates with DSPs including Chalk's Agency Ad Manager and is a thematically adjacent peer in audience-data infrastructure.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks7 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/chalk-media-holdings-inc-
• Xx.com/chalkdigital
• Facebookfacebook.com/ChalkDigital

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles10 records

Subsidiaries1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds3 records

Investors5 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A1 record

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Chalk Digital