CEO: Joe Zawadzki
Employees: 750
2018 revenue: More than $265 million
Total funding to date: Over $500 million
Comment: For years rumors have swirled about a takeover of MediaMath, which kicked back up this summer after AT&T acquired AppNexus. But instead MediaMath received $225 million in funding from private-equity firm Searchlight Capital Partners, signaling that one of the industry's most prominent and oldest names still has plenty of room to grow. In addition to running one of the largest demand-side platforms that helps advertisers buy display ads across swaths of websites, the company also manages customer data from their digital ads and is investing in artificial intelligence to facilitate ad buying and tracking. MediaMath is "still a strong player" that's "always in the mix, especially if you’re looking at multiple DSPs," Matt Mobley, the chief technology officer at Merkle, said.