Trada
Trada was a Boulder, Colorado-based, privately held company founded in 2008 that offered a performance-based paid search advertising solution for advertisers on Google, Yahoo, and Bing, having raised approximately $18M from Foundry Group and Google Ventures through 2014.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2008
- HeadquartersBoulder, United States
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Trada does
Trada was founded in 2008 and headquartered in Boulder, Colorado, as a performance-based paid search solution serving companies advertising on Google, Yahoo, and Bing. The firm's model positioned it as an intermediary layer for paid-search advertisers, with the firmographic profile indicating 11–50 employees and a for-profit, privately held structure. Historically, Trada attracted credible venture backing — cumulative disclosed funding of approximately $17.975M was raised across six documented rounds between 2008 and 2014, with Foundry Group and Google Ventures as the named institutional investors, including a $5.75M round led by Google Ventures in July 2010 and a $9M round in January 2012.
There is no record of operating activity, product launches, leadership changes, customer wins, or additional capital raises after the April 2014 financing round. The current state of the business is unclear from the available data: the trada.com domain is listed for sale on the Efty marketplace (Efty B.V., a Netherlands-incorporated domain resale platform), suggesting that the original Trada operating entity is no longer commercially active at the domain. No revenue, headcount, pricing, customer-segment, or technology-stack disclosures are available for the post-2014 period, and the input does not document a wind-down event, acquisition, or pivot. As a result, the company's current operating status — whether dormant, wound down, or pivoted under a different identity — cannot be confirmed from the supplied information.
Trada firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Trada
- Legal name
- Efty B.V.
- Website
- https://trada.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2008
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- Trada was a Boulder, Colorado-based, privately held company founded in 2008 that offered a performance-based paid search advertising solution for advertisers on Google, Yahoo, and Bing, having raised approximately $18M from Foundry Group and Google Ventures through 2014.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Trada industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Search Advertising Platform
- NAICS
- Advertising Agencies (54181)
- SIC
- Services-Advertising (7310)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Performance Marketing Automation & Bid Management Services (MPAAACAM)
Keywords
Where Trada is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Boulder
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Markets served
Trada business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations
Trada product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Trada is a performance-based paid search solution for companies advertising on Google, Yahoo, and Bing. The platform allows advertisers to run paid search campaigns through a managed, performance-driven model that ties fees to advertising results.
Product overview
Efty is a domain marketplace platform that connects buyers and sellers of premium domain names. The platform operates as a unified ecosystem comprising Efty Investor (portfolio management for domain sellers), Efty Pay (secure payment escrow service), and expert transfer services. The platform follows a 4-step process: Pay (secure payment lock-in), Confirm (verification of payment and domain), Transfer (expert-guided transfer with specialist support), and Build (domain ready for use). Developer access is available through API documentation and partnership programs.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Efty Investor: Domain portfolio management tool for investors
- Efty Pay
- Efty Distribution Network
Products and services
- Trada Paid Search Platform Performance-based paid search solution that enables businesses to advertise on Google, Yahoo, and Bing with fees aligned to advertising results.
Companies that use Trada
Customer profileIdeal customer profiles1 record
Trada technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Trada partnerships and signals
Strategic signalRecent moves6 records
Expansion highlights1 record
Trada competitors and assessment
Company assessmentBroad incumbents
- Kenshoo (Skai): Skai (formerly Kenshoo) is a long-standing enterprise SEM and social bidding platform, comparable to Trada in the core paid search automation category but serving much larger advertisers and agencies.
- Google Ads: Google Ads is the dominant paid search platform that Trada built tooling on top of; its native Smart Bidding and Performance Max automation has progressively absorbed the third-party SEM optimization category Trada competed in.
- Adobe Advertising Cloud: Adobe's Advertising Cloud (originating from the MediaMath and TubeMogul acquisitions) offers paid search and display campaign automation at scale, overlapping with Trada's SEM management category as a much larger incumbent.
- Microsoft Advertising: Microsoft Advertising (formerly Bing Ads) is one of the search ad platforms Trada explicitly supported; as a platform owner it competes with third-party SEM tools by expanding its own automation features.
- Marin Software: Marin Software (now operating as OneScreen) offered enterprise-grade cross-channel paid search and social campaign management, comparable to Trada but at a larger scale and broader channel set.
Emerging players
- Adalysis: Adalysis is a PPC audit and bid management platform for Google Ads and Bing Ads, directly comparable to Trada in serving advertisers seeking automated paid search optimization.
- Optmyzr: Optmyzr provides PPC bid management, reporting and optimization tools for SEM-heavy advertisers and agencies, addressing the same paid search automation use case as Trada but with a smaller, SaaS-native footprint.
Direct peers
- Acquisio: Acquisio was a SaaS platform for automating and managing paid search and social campaigns for SMBs and agencies, directly comparable to Trada's performance-based, multi-platform SEM positioning.
- WordStream: WordStream provided paid search management software and advisory services to SMB advertisers across Google and Bing, a near-identical customer and product profile to Trada's.
Others
- AdRoll: AdRoll is a performance marketing platform focused on retargeting and display, adjacent to Trada's performance-based paid search business in serving SMB advertisers seeking outcome-based acquisition.
Market position
Strengths2 records
Weaknesses4 records
Competitive moat2 records
Key risks5 records
Key highlights4 records
Customer concentration
Trada social profiles
Digital presenceTrada financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Trada leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Trada funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds6 records
Investors2 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Trada M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Trada
What does Trada do?
Trada is a performance-based paid search solution for companies advertising on Google, Yahoo, and Bing. The platform allows advertisers to run paid search campaigns through a managed, performance-driven model that ties fees to advertising results.
Is Trada a public or private company?
Trada is a private company. It is classified as venture growth investor backed and is currently operating.
When was Trada founded?
Trada was founded in 2008. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is Trada based?
Trada is headquartered in Boulder, United States, in the North America region.
Who are Trada's main competitors?
Broad incumbents on record are Kenshoo (Skai), Google Ads, Adobe Advertising Cloud, Microsoft Advertising and Marin Software. Emerging players are Adalysis and Optmyzr. Direct peers are Acquisio and WordStream. AdRoll is listed as an others.
Does Trada have an API?
Yes. Efty offers API documentation for developers, accessible through their GitHub organization page at github.com/eftybv. The API enables developers to build integrations with Efty's domain marketplace platform. Additional developer resources include a partnership program and Efty Distribution Network for extending platform reach. Developer documentation is at github.com/eftybv.
What industry is Trada in?
Trada's product category is Search Advertising Platform. Its primary akta.pro industry code is MPAAACAM, Performance Marketing Automation & Bid Management Services. Its NAICS code is 54181 and its SIC code is 7310.