Integral Ad Science Holding Corp. operates as a digital advertising verification company in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Singapore, Australia, France, Japan, Canada, India, and Brazil. The company provides IAS Signal, a cloud-based technology platform that offers actionable insights; and deliver independent measurement and verification of digital advertising across devices, channels, and formats, including desktop, mobile, connected TV, social, display, and video. Its digital media quality solutions offer ad fraud detection and prevention, viewability, brand safety and suitability, contextual targeting, inventory yield management, and reporting. The company offers Quality Impressions, a metric designed to verify that digital ads are served to a real person rather than a bot, viewable on-screen, and presented in a brand-safe and suitable environment in the correct geography; Context Control solution that delivers contextual targeting and brand suitability capabilities; pre-bid programmatic and post-bid verification solutions for advertisers; and optimization and verification solutions for publishers. It serves advertisers and agencies, publishers, advertising/audience networks, and supply side platforms. The company was founded in 2009 and is headquartered in New York, New York.
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Here are two analogies to describe Integral Ad Science (IAS):
- The FDA for digital ad quality and safety.
- CrowdStrike for digital advertising fraud protection.
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- Brand Safety & Suitability: Services that ensure advertisements appear in environments appropriate for a brand's image and values, avoiding harmful or undesirable content.
- Viewability Measurement: Services that determine whether an ad had the opportunity to be seen by a user, tracking metrics like the percentage of an ad on screen and the duration it was visible.
- Ad Fraud Prevention: Services that identify and block invalid traffic (IVT) and other fraudulent activities, ensuring advertisers' budgets are spent on genuine human impressions.
- Contextual Targeting: Services that enable advertisers to place ads alongside content that is contextually relevant, enhancing ad effectiveness without relying on user data.
- Quality Analytics & Reporting: Services that provide comprehensive data, insights, and reporting on digital media quality metrics to optimize campaign performance for advertisers and publishers.
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Integral Ad Science (symbol: IAS) primarily sells its services to other companies within the digital advertising ecosystem, rather than directly to individuals.
Its major customers include:
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WPP plc (Symbol: WPP)
One of the world's largest advertising and marketing services companies. Its numerous media agencies (e.g., GroupM) utilize IAS's ad verification and measurement solutions across their vast portfolio of advertiser clients.
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Omnicom Group Inc. (Symbol: OMC)
Another global leader in advertising, marketing, and corporate communications. Omnicom's media agencies are significant users of IAS's technology to ensure ad quality and effectiveness for their clients.
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Publicis Groupe (Symbol: PUBGY)
A multinational advertising and public relations company. Publicis's media agencies leverage IAS's platform to provide brand safety, ad fraud prevention, and viewability measurement for their advertisers.
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Alphabet Inc. (Symbol: GOOGL)
IAS partners extensively with Google, and its solutions are integrated across Google's advertising platforms, including Google Ads, Display & Video 360 (DV360), and YouTube. This allows advertisers using Google's platforms to apply IAS's verification services, making Google a critical partner and customer channel for IAS.
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The Trade Desk, Inc. (Symbol: TTD)
A leading independent demand-side platform (DSP) for advertisers. The Trade Desk integrates IAS's technology directly into its platform, enabling its advertiser clients to access and utilize IAS's brand safety, ad fraud, and viewability tools seamlessly within their ad campaigns.
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Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN)
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Lisa Utzschneider, Chief Executive Officer
Lisa Utzschneider joined Integral Ad Science (IAS) as CEO in January 2019, bringing over 20 years of digital advertising and tech-industry leadership experience. Before IAS, she served as Chief Revenue Officer at Yahoo!, overseeing its global sales organization until its acquisition by Verizon in June 2017. Prior to Yahoo!, she was Amazon's Vice President of Global Advertising Sales, where she built and developed the company's global advertising business. She also spent a decade at Microsoft, rising to General Manager of the national sales and service teams. IAS is part of the Vista Equity Partners portfolio of companies.
Alpana Wegner, Chief Financial Officer
Alpana Wegner was appointed Chief Financial Officer of IAS, effective June 10, 2025, bringing over 25 years of financial leadership experience. Most recently, she served as CFO at Secureworks, a formerly publicly traded cybersecurity firm, where she led a successful business transformation strategy prior to its acquisition. Before Secureworks, she was CFO of Benefitfocus, a publicly traded benefits software company, and held senior finance roles at Blackbaud, a cloud computing provider. She has served as a public company CFO in her last two roles.
Marc Grabowski, Chief Operating Officer
Marc Grabowski has over two decades of experience in sales, product, account management, and operational leadership within the media and technology sectors. He previously led Oracle's global go-to-market organization for its advertising products. Grabowski also served as Executive Vice President of Global Supply & Business Development at Criteo and held the CEO role at Persio, a B2B mobile marketing platform, which he led to a successful exit in 2016.
Srishti Gupta, Chief Product Officer
Srishti Gupta joined IAS in 2024 to lead the company's product strategy and development. She is a seasoned executive with a track record of driving growth in B2B and B2C products across various advertising channels. Prior to IAS, Gupta was Chief Product Officer at Rokt, an e-commerce technology company, and before that, she was Director of Ads Measurement at Amazon. She also served as President and General Manager for IRI's Digital and Media Solutions.
Thomas Joseph, Chief Technology Officer
Thomas Joseph serves as the Chief Technology Officer at Integral Ad Science.
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The key risks to Integral Ad Science (IAS) business primarily revolve around competitive market dynamics and the evolving complexities of the digital advertising landscape.
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Increased Competitive Pricing Pressures and Weakening Demand: Integral Ad Science has faced allegations of increased competitive pricing pressures, leading to price cuts to offset weakening demand and slower revenue growth. This has been a central point in securities class action lawsuits filed against the company, suggesting a direct impact on its financial performance and market position.
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Evolving Brand Safety and Suitability Challenges with AI-Generated Content and Deepfakes: The rapid rise of AI-generated content, including deepfakes, and other risky content on social media and digital video platforms, presents a significant and growing challenge for advertisers. This directly impacts IAS's core business of ensuring brand safety and suitability for ad placements. Media experts express persistent safety concerns, particularly regarding ads appearing alongside misinformation or AI-generated content, highlighting the ongoing need for robust verification solutions.
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Persistent Ad Fraud and Broader Media Quality Measurement Complexities: Ad fraud remains a significant concern across the digital advertising ecosystem, including in growing areas like CTV inventory and mobile environments. Furthermore, the overall landscape of media quality measurement is becoming increasingly complex due to the blurring boundaries between channels, the proliferation of digital video, and the lack of standardization in emerging areas such as retail media networks. IAS must continuously adapt its technology and solutions to combat these evolving threats and provide consistent, reliable measurement across a fragmented digital environment.
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The global addressable market for Integral Ad Science's (IAS) main products and services, which are centered on digital ad verification solutions, is valued at over $10 billion. This market is projected to grow at a rate exceeding 16%.
IAS offers core products designed for measurement and optimization within the digital advertising market. These solutions encompass ad fraud detection and prevention, viewability and attention, brand safety and suitability, contextual targeting, inventory yield management, and reporting across various digital channels. The company also has specific offerings for social media platforms, such as its AI-driven Total Media Quality (TMQ) for brand safety and suitability measurement on platforms like TikTok and Meta's Facebook and Instagram, and has expanded to Reddit and Pinterest. Additionally, IAS supports the growing Connected TV (CTV) market with its Publica product line for streaming publishers.
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Integral Ad Science (IAS) is expected to drive future revenue growth over the next 2-3 years through several key initiatives and market trends:
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Expansion in Social Media Verification and Optimization: IAS has demonstrated significant growth by extending its partnerships and capabilities across major social media platforms. The company's revenue from social media grew from $42.2 million in 2020 to $113.6 million in 2024, capitalizing on the projected social media advertising market growth to $244 billion in 2025. Recent expansions include partnerships with TikTok for pre-bid video exclusion lists, Reddit for viewability and invalid traffic measurement, and Meta (Facebook and Instagram) for brand safety and suitability measurement, including content-level avoidance integrations for Feeds and Reels. IAS also announced an expanded partnership with Snap Inc. to enhance transparency and ad effectiveness across Snapchat, including Sponsored Snaps. These collaborations enable advertisers to ensure brand safety, suitability, and ad effectiveness in rapidly evolving social media environments.
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Growth in Connected TV (CTV) Measurement and Optimization: The shift in consumer behavior towards streaming platforms and ad-supported content is a significant driver for IAS. The company accelerated its CTV strategy with the acquisition of Publica, a CTV advertising platform, in 2021. IAS aims to help publishers monetize their video programming across CTV devices and provide advertisers with transparency into inventory quality. The company continues to innovate in this space, offering solutions for brand safety and suitability in CTV advertising, including its Total Media Quality (TMQ) product on YouTube to include misinformation measurement. Advertisers are expected to shift budgets from linear television to CTV, with the CTV ad market projected to surpass $24.7 billion by 2024.
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Product Innovation and AI-Driven Solutions: IAS consistently introduces new products and leverages artificial intelligence to enhance its offerings, driving value for customers. Examples include the AI-driven Total Media Quality (TMQ) suite for brand safety and suitability across various platforms, including TikTok and Meta. The company also debuted a new deal with Reddit to integrate AI tools for brand safety and suitability campaigns. IAS's focus on performance, product innovation, and global reach through advanced technology is a core part of its strategy for sustained growth. This includes expanding its Quality Attention solution to publishers and SSPs to improve yield optimization and revenue opportunities.
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Expansion into Retail Media Networks: Retail media is identified as one of the fastest-growing sectors in advertising, with global ad spend expected to reach $155 billion by 2026. IAS is expanding its measurement and optimization solutions to this market, enabling brands to advertise across a range of digital channels within retail environments. The company has partnered with platforms like Criteo to provide first-to-market products for measuring on-site quality metrics for retail media, ensuring viewability and invalid traffic measurement. This allows marketers to maximize return on ad spend by ensuring ads are seen by real users in brand-safe, viewable, and non-fraudulent impressions.
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Customer Acquisition and Increased Adoption of Services: IAS has demonstrated a consistent track record of acquiring new customers and expanding relationships with existing ones, leading to strong net revenue retention (109%). The company has reported new customer wins and has benefited from the closure of Oracle's Ad business (Moat), which generated substantial revenue, leading to an influx of new clients. The increased adoption of its optimization and measurement solutions, particularly premium offerings like TMQ and context control avoidance products, by both new and existing customers, is a continuous driver of revenue growth. IAS's ability to cross-sell newer products, especially in the social media segment, further contributes to this growth.
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Here is a summary of Integral Ad Science's (IAS) capital allocation decisions over the last 3-5 years:
Share Issuance
- Integral Ad Science completed its Initial Public Offering (IPO) in June 2021, issuing 15,000,000 shares at $18 per share, which raised $270 million.
- The number of common shares outstanding increased from 162,871,266 at December 31, 2024, to 166,863,690 at September 30, 2025.
- Cash received from the Employee Stock Purchase Program was $2.263 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2025, and $2.329 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2024.
Inbound Investments
- On September 24, 2025, IAS announced a definitive agreement to be acquired by Novacap, a North American private equity firm, in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $1.9 billion.
- Under the terms of the agreement, Novacap will acquire all outstanding shares of IAS for $10.30 per share in cash.
- This transaction is expected to close before the end of 2025, at which point IAS will become a privately held company.
Outbound Investments
- Integral Ad Science has made a total of 7 acquisitions, with peak acquisition years in 2021 (2 acquisitions) and 2022 (1 acquisition).
- The most recent acquisition was Context, a Paris-based digital and content marketing, branding, and advertising services provider, which closed in January 2022.