LiveIntent

What LiveIntent does

LiveIntent is a people-based email marketing and advertising platform that connects consumer brands with audiences across 2,500+ premium publisher newsletters reaching 240M+ logged-in subscribers. Founded in 2009 and headquartered in New York with engineering offices in Copenhagen and Berlin, the company operates a two-sided marketplace serving both marketers (brands seeking targeted reach) and publishers (seeking email inventory monetization). Its core differentiator is the proprietary Identity Graph, which contains 900M active hashed emails and 25 billion authenticated data signals built and refreshed daily through organic email engagement rather than purchased data, enabling people-based targeting that functions in a cookieless environment.

The platform is organized into three solution suites: Marketer Solutions (including Native Curated Packages, People-Based Audiences with 800+ pre-built segments, Full Funnel Solutions, and the LiveMax real-time optimization engine), Publisher/Monetization Solutions (including Native Ad Blueprints, Direct Sold campaign management, and an Identity Module), and Identity Data Solutions (including the Identity Graph, nonID encrypted bridge, Email Reactivation scoring, and the HIRO addressability solution). Key technical components include the LiveTag email ad-serving snippet, LiveConnect for cross-channel audience building, and deep integrations with Google Ad Manager, MediaMath DSP, and major header bidding partners. The company maintains additional product surface in animated teaser ad formats and a creator economy partnership with ConvertKit reaching 2.5 billion monthly email opens.

LiveIntent generates revenue primarily through advertising, monetizing publisher email inventory via direct-sold, open exchange, and programmatic deal/package options, while charging brands to access premium publisher audiences with people-based targeting and measurement. The company sells through a hybrid model combining dedicated enterprise account teams for Fortune 1000 brands and publishers with programmatic channel partnerships for scaled buying. In October 2024, LiveIntent was acquired by Zeta Global Holdings Corp. for $250 million, becoming a wholly-owned subsidiary within the publicly traded AI-powered marketing cloud (NYSE: ZETA). Prior to the acquisition, the company had raised approximately $65M in venture capital across four rounds (2009-2015) from investors including Battery Ventures, First Round Capital, FTV Capital, Shasta Ventures, and Greylock Partners.

Name

LiveIntent

Legal name

LiveIntent

Website

https://liveintent.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2011

Operating status

Acquired

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

LiveIntent is a people-based email advertising platform connecting 2,500+ brands with 240M+ logged-in subscribers across 2,500+ premium publisher newsletters, monetized through its proprietary 900M-email Identity Graph. Acquired by Zeta Global for $250M in October 2024.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

New York

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices3 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Email Advertising/Monetization: LiveIntent enables publishers to monetize their email newsletter inventory by serving targeted ads to subscribers. The platform dynamically targets, serves, and optimizes ads at the moment of each email open, offering direct-sold, open exchange, and deal/package options for monetization.
2. Marketer Solutions: Brands and marketers pay to advertise within premium publisher email newsletters, accessing 2,500+ publishers and 240M+ logged-in subscribers through native ads, curated packages, and programmatic buying.
3. Identity Data Solutions: Identity resolution services enabling publishers to identify website visitors across browsers and devices using stable email identifiers, and helping brands onboard and activate first-party data across the ecosystem.

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

LiveIntent operates a people-based email marketing and advertising platform that connects 2,500+ brands with 240M+ logged-in subscribers across premium publisher newsletters. The platform provides advertisers with people-based targeting, native ad placements, and audience solutions while helping publishers monetize email inventory through direct-sold, programmatic, and identity-driven advertising. Its proprietary Identity Graph anchors targeting and measurement using first-party, email-authenticated data instead of third-party cookies.

Product overview

LiveIntent is a people-based email marketing and advertising platform that operates as a platform-plus-modules architecture. The core LiveIntent Platform connects brands with audiences across 2,500+ premium publisher newsletters reaching 240M+ logged-in subscribers. The platform comprises three main solution suites: Marketer Solutions (including Native Curated Packages, People-Based Audiences with LiveAudiences and Data Passback, Full Funnel Solutions with Animated Teasers and Custom Creator Content, and the LiveMax optimization engine), Publisher/Monetization Solutions (including Native Ad Blueprints, Direct Sold, and Identity Module), and Identity Data Solutions (including the Identity Graph with 900M hashed emails and 25B data signals, nonID bridge technology, Email Reactivation, and HIRO addressability solution). LiveTag enables email ad serving while LiveConnect enables web/mobile audience building.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• HIRO: Helping Identity Reveal Opportunity - An addressability solution that helps publishers boost addressability across all browsers by mapping first-party cookies to stable identifiers, addressing signal loss in the post third-party cookie era.
• LiveConnect
• LiveAudiences
• LiveMax
• nonID

Products and services

• Marketer Solutions Suite of advertising solutions for brands enabling reach to incremental audiences through premium publisher email newsletter inventory with people-based targeting and measurement across awareness, acquisition, and retention stages.
• Publisher / Monetization Solutions Suite of solutions for digital publishers to monetize email newsletter and web inventory, activating first-party data to unlock revenue while maintaining reader privacy and consent preferences.
• Identity Data Solutions Identity resolution suite anchored in first-party email-authenticated data, unifying disparate identifiers across the digital ecosystem to enable increased resolution and cookieless addressability for publishers and brands.
• Native Curated Packages Curated native advertising offerings that seamlessly blend marketing messaging with publisher newsletter content through exclusive, vertically-aligned sponsored content packages reaching opted-in engaged subscribers.
• People-Based Audiences Audience targeting solution featuring Custom Audiences, Dynamic Audiences, and Lookalike Audiences powered by 800+ scalable audience segments and first-party CRM data onboarding for people-based marketing.
• Full Funnel Solutions Full-funnel email newsletter advertising offering within premium publisher content covering awareness, acquisition, and retention stages, including native and sponsorship placements, audience optimization, animated teasers, and creator content via ConvertKit partnership.
• Native Ad Blueprints Publisher-side native ad technology that automates and elevates native ads in email with custom placement design, streamlined workflows, and revenue optimization while maintaining reader experience.
• Direct Sold Email ad serving capability for publishers to plan, schedule, and traffic direct-sold and house email campaigns, with forecasting tools, line item management, sponsorship coordination, and Google Ad Manager integration.
• Email Reactivation Win-back solution using LiveIntent's proprietary identity graph and data science to score email lists and identify, retarget, and reactivate lapsed customers with the highest likelihood of re-engagement.
• HIRO (Helping Identity Reveal Opportunity) Addressability solution for the post third-party cookie era that transforms non-addressable audiences into addressable inventory by mapping first-party cookies to stable identifiers across all browsers.

Quantifiable outcome

• 23% lower CPA for The Farmer's Dog
• +6 more outcomes

Named customers13 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration3 records

AI capability5 records

Feature9 records

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered flagship and core.

• Zeta GlobalflagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 October 2024Zeta Global acquired LiveIntent in October 2024 for $250 million. The acquisition enhances Zeta's identity resolution capabilities and expands its publisher ecosystem. LiveIntent now operates as part of Zeta Global's platform, with HIRO being integrated into Zeta's Publisher Cloud.
• ConvertKitcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerLiveIntent partnership with ConvertKit provides advertisers access to the creator and influencer community through exclusive sponsorships. Advertisers gain access to hundreds of thousands of creators generating 2.5 billion email opens monthly with 100% share-of-voice through native sponsorships on the LiveIntent platform.
• Google Ad ManagercoreTechnology or IntegrationLiveIntent offers integration with Google Ad Manager enabling publishers to manage direct-sold campaigns and line items for email inventory within the familiar GAM workflow. This streamlines operations by allowing publishers to book, manage, and review inventory and reporting for all direct-sold campaigns including email through GAM.
• MediaMathcoreTechnology or IntegrationLiveIntent's identity solution is integrated with MediaMath as an Identity partner, enabling advertisers using MediaMath's DSP to access LiveIntent's people-based audience data and addressability solutions.
• Header Bidding PartnerscoreTechnology or IntegrationLiveIntent's Identity Module integrates with leading header bidding partners to enable publishers to earn more from mobile web and anonymous browser inventory without relying on third-party cookies.

Scale indicators9 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• The Trade Desk: The Trade Desk is a global DSP that has built its own identity infrastructure (UID2) to compete in cookieless audience targeting and programmatic ad buying. LiveIntent's nonID and HIRO products directly overlap with UID2's addressability use case, and TTD's large advertiser base makes it a strong direct competitor for LiveIntent's marketer solutions.
• MediaMath: MediaMath is an enterprise DSP that has integrated LiveIntent's identity solution as an identity partner. It directly competes in demand-side programmatic buying and identity-enabled audience activation, comparable to LiveIntent's marketer and identity offerings.
• Intuit Mailchimp: Mailchimp is the leading email marketing platform for SMBs, with advertising/audience capabilities layered on top of its messaging product. It competes with LiveIntent on email audience building and on advertiser access to email inventory, particularly at the lower end of the market.
• Lotame: Lotame operates a global data connectivity and identity platform (Lotame ID, formerly Unify) serving publishers, brands, and agencies for audience targeting and data collaboration. It overlaps directly with LiveIntent's identity resolution and data onboarding capabilities for the open web.
• LiveRamp: LiveRamp is a leading identity resolution and data collaboration platform that operates an authenticated identity graph (RampID) and sells people-based targeting and measurement to advertisers and publishers. It is the most direct functional competitor to LiveIntent's Identity Graph and HIRO addressability solution, both targeting the open-web cookieless future.
• AdRoll: AdRoll is a performance-focused digital advertising platform offering display, retargeting, and email-adjacent products aimed at DTC and e-commerce brands. It is comparable to LiveIntent in targeting mid-market and DTC advertisers seeking measurable acquisition outcomes.

Broad incumbents

• Zeta Global: Zeta Global is LiveIntent's parent company post-October 2024 acquisition and a public AI-powered marketing cloud serving enterprise marketers with identity, data, and personalization. It is a broad incumbent in the same email/identity/data space and now encompasses LiveIntent as its publisher cloud.
• Acxiom (IPG): Acxiom is a large data and identity provider within IPG, offering audience segmentation, identity resolution, and data onboarding comparable to LiveIntent's Identity Graph and nonID bridge service.
• Yahoo (Yahoo Advertising): Yahoo Advertising operates a premium email and native advertising network with one of the largest authenticated consumer email audiences. It is comparable to LiveIntent as a broad incumbent combining owned email inventory with audience targeting and DSP/SSP capabilities.
• Conversant (Epsilon / Publicis): Conversant, now part of Epsilon within Publicis, was a major people-based digital marketing and identity platform. It is comparable to LiveIntent as a broad incumbent in display advertising, email, and people-based targeting for consumer brands.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/liveintent
• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UCnM99h0HlK7aT3bkKNHKMfA
• Facebookfacebook.com/LiveIntent
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/liveintent-inc-
• Instagraminstagram.com/liveintent

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles11 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds5 records

Investors12 records

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

M&A2 records

Investments

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

Frequently asked questions about LiveIntent