SAN FRANCISCO—Samba TV has announced that it has secured new financing from Horizon Technology Finance Corporation, an affiliate of Monroe Capital, with an initial venture debt facility of $30 million, and up to $30 million more to support future growth.

Samba TV said it will use the capital to accelerate the AI transformation in media and advertising, driving adoption of its advanced agentic advertising solutions. The financing will also support its efforts to expand its global operations and strategic partnerships, as a unified, cross-platform measurement source for global DSPs, SSPs and major platforms like TikTok and Snap.

In addition, Samba reported that it “is now capitalized to continue its track-record of strategic acquisitions of technology companies.”

“The traditional advertising playbook is obsolete and Samba is delivering Agentic AI infrastructure the industry needs to execute with unified, real-time infrastructure to optimize every screen,” said Ashwin Navin, CEO and co-founder of Samba TV. “This growth capital provides the strategic flexibility and firepower to aggressively execute our AI product roadmap, scale our global partnerships, and opportunistically execute on M&A opportunities when they present themselves. We chose to partner with Horizon because of their deep understanding of the technology landscape and their ability to provide sophisticated, non-dilutive capital solutions that align with our long-term vision.”

“The media and advertising sector is at a critical inflection point, and Samba has established itself as an indispensable global leader,” said Mark Solovy, managing director and co-head, Technology Finance Group at Monroe Capital, the parent company of Horizon. “Samba TV’s proprietary data, advanced AI platform, and its deep integration with the world’s leading media platforms represent the exact kind of durable, scalable business model we seek to invest in. We are thrilled to provide the growth capital to support Ashwin and his team as they capitalize on this massive market opportunity.”

NEW YORK—Proximic by Comscore, a division of Comscore Inc., has announced that Horizon Media, the largest U.S. media agency has selected Proximic by Comscore as its preferred contextual intelligence provider. 

With this agreement, Horizon Media’s clients will be able to seamlessly tap into thousands of Proximic by Comscore’s contextually-powered targeting segments, with a specific focus on Proximic’s ID-free Predictive Audiences, the companies said. 

“In light of signal loss and increased global privacy regulations, sophisticated media buyers like Horizon have already begun to adopt privacy-focused technologies that will insulate them from these ongoing shifts in the identity landscape,” said Kathryn Roganti, senior vice president, brand & agency at Proximic by Comscore. “Our partnership with Horizon will enable them to support clients who are navigating the choppy waters of the targeting ecosystem, using trusted, privacy-resilient data.”

“At Horizon, we are dedicated to finding innovative solutions to persistent industry challenges like signal loss, empowering our clients to achieve superior results,” said Alexander Stone, senior vice president of advanced video and agency partnerships. “We are excited to expand our partnership with Comscore to include Proximic by Comscore’s cutting-edge targeting technology, which has consistently improved outcomes across our client portfolio.”

Proximic by Comscore’s segments are available for Horizon Media’s clients to activate across leading DSPs like The Trade Desk, including across premium connected TV inventory. In recent head-to-head testing, ID-free Predictive Audiences have proven to drive significant scale with an average of 96% incremental reach over ID-based tactics, making it a highly effective solution for brands seeking addressable audience targeting.

OTTAWA—The Montana Television Network has caught the Horizon connector from Ross Video to enable a connected newsroom workflow for its five newsrooms. The Horizon system connects each station through Ross’ Inception News newsroom computer system.

Horizon

KTVH in Helena, Mont., launched its Inception News platform in 2016; Montana Television Network recently installed Inception in its four remaining studios – KPAX, KRTV, KBZK, KTVQ. Now with the Horizon system as a connector between the Inception systems, users can access information from any of the other stations’ Inception systems through drag-and-drop workflows.

The Montana Television Network is operated by Cordillera Communications and its five stations are located across the state to serve Montana and parts of Wyoming.

Ross Video is showcasing the Horizon connector at the 2017 NAB Show.