PHOENIX, Jan. 06, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Freestar, the leading monetization partner for content publishers, e-commerce sites, and app developers, today announced a strategic investment from Abry Partners ("Abry"). Abry, a leading Boston-based private equity firm, manages over $5 billion of capital in its active funds and has completed more than $82 billion in transactions. Abry's investment is intended to help Freestar to provide its award-winning monetization services to more partners and pursue strategic acquisitions. Existing Freestar shareholders will maintain majority ownership of the company.
“This is a very significant moment for Freestar as it validates all of the hard work our team puts in every day. It also marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter as the company has been bootstrapped up to this point. I am grateful for the opportunity to work with the Abry team to accelerate our growth trajectory and further build out the best team, technology and customer service in the industry,” said Kurt Donnell, CEO and President of Freestar.
Freestar had another banner year in 2020, nearly doubling headcount and making significant investments in technology and data. The company also completed its first acquisition in July, adding additional app monetization technology to further cement its position as the one-stop shop for multi-platform outsourced ad management. Abry’s investment and expertise will help the company offer expanded services and build new products leveraging its proprietary Ideal Ad Stack technology.
“We are thrilled to partner with Freestar as they continue to lead the way in programmatic advertising. We believe their team and technology deliver the best header bidding and app monetization solutions in the industry coupled with the world class service they’ve become known for” said Tyler Wick, Partner at Abry. “Freestar’s continued revenue growth in 2020 in the midst of a global pandemic is a telling sign of their strength and fortitude.”
Freestar joins Abry’s portfolio of investments in leading companies focused on media and entertainment, healthcare IT services, insurance services, and business and information services. Prior ad tech and media investments include CafeMedia, AdSwerve and VerticalScope.
Needham & Company acted as the exclusive financial advisor to Freestar for this transaction.
About Abry Partners
Abry is one of the most experienced and successful sector-focused private equity investment firms in North America. Since their founding in 1989, the firm has completed over $82.0 billion of leveraged transactions and other private equity or preferred equity placements. Currently, the firm manages over $5.0 billion of capital across their active funds. For more information on Abry, please visit www.abry.com.
About Freestar
In an ever-changing industry full of buzzwords and empty promises, Freestar was founded to simplify the challenges of monetizing websites and apps. Leveraging the ideal mix of programmatic header bidding, private marketplace deals, and a unified analytics platform, Freestar’s team of monetization experts help publishers, e-commerce sites and apps unleash their true revenue potential. Freestar’s ever expanding family of publisher and app developer partners reach over 50% of all U.S. internet users each month and provide unique opportunities for advertisers to reach their target audiences efficiently at scale. For more information, visit www.freestar.com.
Media Contact
Lauren Goveo
Director, PR Freestar
lauren.goveo@freestar.com
602.320.5613