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Grapeshot

Full company profile

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Namestring
Grapeshot
Websiteurl
oracle.com
Company typeenum
Private
Founded yearint
2006
Descriptiontext

Grapeshot is a contextual intelligence platform founded in 2006 and headquartered in New York. Per its firmographic profile, the company empowers brands to deliver relevance to every customer experience, which in practice means providing page-level and audience-level semantic analysis to inform ad targeting, brand safety, and content relevance decisions in programmatic and digital media workflows. The platform is built around contextual data assets and proprietary classification technology that has been developed over more than a decade of operating history. The firmographic website is now hosted at oracle.com, which signals that Grapeshot's product surface has been integrated into Oracle's broader Marketing/Advertising Cloud ecosystem rather than being marketed as a standalone brand.

The company operates as a private for-profit entity with 51-100 employees. Grapeshot has raised approximately $22.35M across five equity rounds between 2009 and 2016, with investors including AlbionVC, Molten Ventures, IQ Capital, Cambridge Angels, and GEIF Ventures. Its go-to-market shows clear vertical specialization: leadership includes dedicated SVP Product Strategy for Video, VP Product Strategy for Audience, Director of Sales for Publishing, and a Sales Director for China, indicating targeted commercialization across video, audience, and publishing verticals as well as geographic expansion into Asia-Pacific. The business model and pricing structure are not disclosed in the input data, but the institutional investor mix, verticalized sales roles, and contextual-intelligence product positioning are consistent with an enterprise SaaS / data-licensing model typical of the adtech category.

Short descriptiontext

Grapeshot is a New York-based contextual intelligence platform (founded 2006, 51-100 employees) that provides semantic analysis technology to brands and publishers for ad targeting, brand safety, and content relevance across digital media workflows.

Ownership categoryenum
Headcount rangeband
51–100
akta.pro rankint
HeadquartersNew York, United States
HQ citystring
New York
HQ countrystring
United States
HQ regionstring
North America
Markets served

Serves global market

Keyword5 values
contextual intelligence platform, ad targeting technology, brand safety solutions, audience insights, programmatic advertising
Product category
Advertising Technology (Contextual Intelligence)
Social media profiles2 records
Cost components5 values
Technology or R&D, Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure
GTM typeB2B
B2B
Offering typeSoftware
Software
Core offering1 text field

Grapeshot is a contextual intelligence platform that empowers brands to deliver relevance to every customer experience. The company provides technology-driven contextual analysis and audience intelligence products spanning video, audience, and market research, sold to brand marketers, agencies, and publishers.

Differentiator
Functional benefit
Problem solved
Product and service5 records
1Grapeshot Contextual Intelligence Platform
CategoryAdvertising Technology
2Video Product Strategy
CategoryAdvertising Technology
3Audience Product Strategy
CategoryAdvertising Technology
4Market Research & Intelligence
CategoryAdvertising Technology
5Sales Publishing Solution
CategoryAdvertising Technology
Recent move6 records

Each record includes

Date, Type, Title, Description, Source

Expansion highlight5 records

Each record includes

Type, Description

Peers10 records
TypeDirect peer
Description

Public ad-verification and brand-safety company whose core offering — contextual targeting, fraud prevention, and viewability — directly mirrors Grapeshot's pre-acquisition product set, serving the same advertiser/agency/publisher buyers.

TypeDirect peer
Description

Direct competitor in brand-safety, ad-verification, and contextual categorization; both companies sell into the same DSP/exchange ecosystem and address overlap with advertiser brand-safety spend.

TypeBroad incumbent
Description

Grapeshot's parent business unit post-acquisition; Oracle Advertising now sells Grapeshot's contextual intelligence alongside Moat's viewability and measurement products, creating internal overlap and the closest internal comparable for the acquired asset.

TypeDirect peer
Description

Proximic offers semantic/contextual targeting as a data layer to DSPs and exchanges — the same buyer channel and product category Grapeshot serves, making it a direct peer in contextual audience data.

TypeDirect peer
Description

Long-standing competitor in page-level contextual classification for programmatic advertising; shares the same audience-data-vendor business model and exchange/DSP distribution as Grapeshot.

TypeBroad incumbent
Description

Market-research and audience-measurement incumbent; now also distributes contextual targeting via Proximic and overlaps Grapeshot on the publisher and agency intelligence side.

TypeBroad incumbent
Description

Marketer-focused data and identity platform operating at the intersection of audience intelligence and activation; competes for the same brand/agency marketing-services budget that contextual-intelligence vendors serve.

TypeBroad incumbent
Description

Demand-side platform that buys Grapeshot's category of contextual data but also increasingly layers its own contextual/targeting capabilities — a critical channel customer and adjacent competitive threat.

TypeBroad incumbent
Description

Data connectivity and audience-resolution platform addressing the same marketer need for cross-channel relevance and identity, adjacent to the contextual-intelligence category Grapeshot sits in.

TypeEmerging player
Description

Contextual intelligence and attention measurement vendor using computer-vision and NLP for brand-safe targeting — overlapping product surface with Grapeshot's contextual capabilities while differentiated by visual-content focus.

Market position
Strengths4 records

Each record includes

Headline, Details, Source

Weaknesses4 records

Each record includes

Headline, Details, Source

Competitive moat3 records

Each record includes

Type, Details

Key risks5 records

Each record includes

Headline, Details, Source

Key highlights6 records

Each record includes

Headline, Details, Source

Customer concentration

Classification, Details

Ideal customer profile3 records

Each record includes

Profile, Firmographic size, Sales motion, Sales cycle length, Buying structure, Purchase trigger, Buyer persona, Geography, Industry vertical, Primary use case, Description, Pain points, Evidence proof points, Target buyer

Technology focused
Yes
API detail
Has APIbool
No

Docs URL, Description

AI maturity
App detail

Has app

Core technology
Revenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Number of profiles
Profiles7 records

Each record includes

Name, Designation, Designation category, Overview, Profile commentary, Source

No data
No data
Funding overview

Funding stage, Last funding date, Total funding USD

Funding rounds5 records

Each record includes

Round, Amount USD, Date, Pre money valuation, Total investors, Investors, News

Investors5 records

Each record includes

Name, Type, Date of entry, Rounds participated, Website

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

M&A

Each record includes

Name, Acquisition type, Announced date, Completed date, Status, Website, News

Investment

Each record includes

Name, Round, Announced date, Lead investor, Website, News

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

Grapeshot

Advertising Technology (Contextual Intelligence)oracle.com

Grapeshot is a New York-based contextual intelligence platform (founded 2006, 51-100 employees) that provides semantic analysis technology to brands and publishers for ad targeting, brand safety, and content relevance across digital media workflows.

What Grapeshot does

Grapeshot is a contextual intelligence platform founded in 2006 and headquartered in New York. Per its firmographic profile, the company empowers brands to deliver relevance to every customer experience, which in practice means providing page-level and audience-level semantic analysis to inform ad targeting, brand safety, and content relevance decisions in programmatic and digital media workflows. The platform is built around contextual data assets and proprietary classification technology that has been developed over more than a decade of operating history. The firmographic website is now hosted at oracle.com, which signals that Grapeshot's product surface has been integrated into Oracle's broader Marketing/Advertising Cloud ecosystem rather than being marketed as a standalone brand.

The company operates as a private for-profit entity with 51-100 employees. Grapeshot has raised approximately $22.35M across five equity rounds between 2009 and 2016, with investors including AlbionVC, Molten Ventures, IQ Capital, Cambridge Angels, and GEIF Ventures. Its go-to-market shows clear vertical specialization: leadership includes dedicated SVP Product Strategy for Video, VP Product Strategy for Audience, Director of Sales for Publishing, and a Sales Director for China, indicating targeted commercialization across video, audience, and publishing verticals as well as geographic expansion into Asia-Pacific. The business model and pricing structure are not disclosed in the input data, but the institutional investor mix, verticalized sales roles, and contextual-intelligence product positioning are consistent with an enterprise SaaS / data-licensing model typical of the adtech category.

Grapeshot firmographics

Firmographics
Name
Grapeshot
Website
https://oracle.com
Company type
Private
Founded year
2006
Headcount range
51–100 employees
Short description
Grapeshot is a New York-based contextual intelligence platform (founded 2006, 51-100 employees) that provides semantic analysis technology to brands and publishers for ad targeting, brand safety, and content relevance across digital media workflows.
Ownership category
akta.pro rank

Where Grapeshot is headquartered

Location

Headquarters

HQ city
New York
HQ country
United States
HQ region
North America

Markets served

Grapeshot business model

Business model
GTM type
B2B
Offering type
Software
Cost components
Technology or R&D, Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Grapeshot product offering

Product offering

Core offering

Grapeshot is a contextual intelligence platform that empowers brands to deliver relevance to every customer experience. The company provides technology-driven contextual analysis and audience intelligence products spanning video, audience, and market research, sold to brand marketers, agencies, and publishers.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

  • Grapeshot Contextual Intelligence Platform
  • Video Product Strategy
  • Audience Product Strategy
  • Market Research & Intelligence
  • Sales Publishing Solution

Companies that use Grapeshot

Customer profile

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Grapeshot technology and API

Technology

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API
No
API docs
API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Grapeshot partnerships and signals

Strategic signal

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Grapeshot competitors and assessment

Company assessment

Direct peers

  • DoubleVerify: Public ad-verification and brand-safety company whose core offering — contextual targeting, fraud prevention, and viewability — directly mirrors Grapeshot's pre-acquisition product set, serving the same advertiser/agency/publisher buyers.
  • Integral Ad Science (IAS): Direct competitor in brand-safety, ad-verification, and contextual categorization; both companies sell into the same DSP/exchange ecosystem and address overlap with advertiser brand-safety spend.
  • Proximic by Comscore: Proximic offers semantic/contextual targeting as a data layer to DSPs and exchanges — the same buyer channel and product category Grapeshot serves, making it a direct peer in contextual audience data.
  • Peer39: Long-standing competitor in page-level contextual classification for programmatic advertising; shares the same audience-data-vendor business model and exchange/DSP distribution as Grapeshot.

Broad incumbents

  • Oracle Advertising (Moat): Grapeshot's parent business unit post-acquisition; Oracle Advertising now sells Grapeshot's contextual intelligence alongside Moat's viewability and measurement products, creating internal overlap and the closest internal comparable for the acquired asset.
  • Comscore: Market-research and audience-measurement incumbent; now also distributes contextual targeting via Proximic and overlaps Grapeshot on the publisher and agency intelligence side.
  • Zeta Global: Marketer-focused data and identity platform operating at the intersection of audience intelligence and activation; competes for the same brand/agency marketing-services budget that contextual-intelligence vendors serve.
  • The Trade Desk: Demand-side platform that buys Grapeshot's category of contextual data but also increasingly layers its own contextual/targeting capabilities — a critical channel customer and adjacent competitive threat.
  • LiveRamp: Data connectivity and audience-resolution platform addressing the same marketer need for cross-channel relevance and identity, adjacent to the contextual-intelligence category Grapeshot sits in.

Emerging players

  • GumGum: Contextual intelligence and attention measurement vendor using computer-vision and NLP for brand-safe targeting — overlapping product surface with Grapeshot's contextual capabilities while differentiated by visual-content focus.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

Grapeshot social profiles

Digital presence

Grapeshot financial estimates

Financial estimate

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Grapeshot leadership team

Management profile

Number of profiles

Profiles7 records

Grapeshot funding detail

Funding detail

Funding overview

Funding rounds5 records

Investors5 records

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

Grapeshot M&A and investment

M&A and investment

M&A

Investments

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

Frequently asked questions about Grapeshot

What does Grapeshot do?

Grapeshot is a contextual intelligence platform that empowers brands to deliver relevance to every customer experience. The company provides technology-driven contextual analysis and audience intelligence products spanning video, audience, and market research, sold to brand marketers, agencies, and publishers.

When was Grapeshot founded?

Grapeshot was founded in 2006. It employs 51 to 100 people.

Where is Grapeshot based?

Grapeshot is headquartered in New York, United States, in the North America region.

Who are Grapeshot's main competitors?

Direct peers on record are DoubleVerify, Integral Ad Science (IAS), Proximic by Comscore and Peer39. Broad incumbents are Oracle Advertising (Moat), Comscore, Zeta Global, The Trade Desk and LiveRamp. GumGum is listed as an emerging player.

Does Grapeshot have an API?

No public API is recorded for Grapeshot.

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Live signals
LinkedInARPU Kidding Me?The author argues that M&A has become a common exit path for ad tech companies, citing BlueKai and Grapeshot joining a group of failed acquisitions including LiveRail, Wildfire and aQuantive. The piece attributes failures to ARPU mismatches, legal risk, and the complexity of ad tech contracts, contrasting it with SaaS.ExchangeWireGrapeshot Founder & ‘Pioneer’ of Contextual Advertising John Snyder Joins Illuma TechnologyJohn Snyder, co-founder of Grapeshot, has joined Illuma Technology as a shareholder and active investor to support its contextual AI advertising solutions. This move leverages Snyder's experience in scaling ad tech firms amid the industry's shift away from third-party cookies due to GDPR regulations. Illuma aims to utilize its proprietary technology to expand audience targeting using only contextual signals without relying on user identifiers.Business InsiderInside Grapeshot's $325 million decision to sell to Oracle, despite some investors thinking it could have grown into a $1 billion startupOracle acquired UK ad-tech startup Grapeshot for $325 million, including earn-outs, in a deal that made its executive team millionaires. Investors said the company could have reached $1 billion but chose to sell to Oracle after fighting private-equity offers. The acquisition is seen as another Cambridge success, with the ad-tech market facing consolidation and new privacy laws.GlobeNewswireTremor Video DSP Partners with Grapeshot, Becomes First Video DSP to Mandate Only Brand Safe Supply is Served for AdvertisersTremor Video DSP integrated Grapeshot's pre-bid custom brand safety capabilities, making them available across all supply. The partnership aims to protect brands, with 75% of brands reporting brand safety issues in the past year. The integration enables contextual targeting and custom brand safety.GlobeNewswiredataxu doubles down on global custom brand safety with Grapeshot integrationdataxu launched its Omnichannel Contextual Suite powered by Grapeshot, offering brand safety and contextual targeting. The integration helps customers comply with GDPR, which takes effect May 25, and Grapeshot crawls over seven billion pages daily. The suite includes custom keyword sets and page-level URL categorization.GlobeNewswireNotification of portfolio company transactionKings Arms Yard VCT PLC announced the exchange of contracts for the sale of its investment Grapeshot Limited, with completion expected within a month. The sale could uplift net asset value per share for Albion VCTs, with potential increases ranging from 0.3p to 8.6p depending on the fund and escrow deductions.GlobeNewswireNotification of portfolio company transactionAlbion Technology & General VCT PLC announced the sale of its investment in Grapeshot Limited, with completion expected within approximately a month. The transaction is subject to conditions, and the board disclosed potential net asset value uplifts per share for its VCTs, excluding discounts for completion risk.GlobeNewswireNotification of portfolio company transactionAlbion Development VCT PLC announced the exchange of contracts for the sale of its investment Grapeshot Limited, with completion expected within approximately a month. The sale is subject to conditions, and the company disclosed potential net asset value uplifts per share for its VCTs, excluding discounts for completion risk.GlobeNewswireNotification of portfolio company transactionAlbion Enterprise VCT PLC's board announced the exchange of contracts for the sale of its investment Grapeshot Limited, with completion expected within approximately a month. The announcement includes potential net asset value uplifts per share for its VCTs, excluding discounts for completion risk.AdweekOracle Acquires Grapeshot to Help Advertisers With Brand Safety IssuesOracle has acquired British marketing technology firm Grapeshot to enhance its brand safety capabilities and contextualize ad placements. This acquisition complements Oracle's existing measurement tools, such as Moat, to improve marketing outcomes for its partners worldwide. The deal occurs amidst regulatory uncertainty in the ad-tech sector with GDPR implementation approaching.