Snap Acquires Ad Measurement Startup ‘Placed’ In $125 Million Deal (Report)

In its most expensive acquisition thus far as a public company, Snap Inc. has purchased Placed, a six-year-old startup that measures what impact digital advertising campaigns have on offline purchases. Bloomberg pegs the purchase price at $125 million, but notes that that amount could increase depending on future terms.

Placed, which is based in Seattle, will continue to operate independently of Snap, per Bloomberg, and its CEO David Shim will now report to Imran Khan, Snap’s chief strategy officer. Placed counts 100 employees, and also operates offices in New York and Los Angeles. Snap will presumably harness the company’s tech — which tracks the location of consumers after they’ve been exposed to an ad — to help convince advertisers that Snapchat ads are effective in driving in-store sales.

“Over the past 12 months, Placed has measured more than $500 million in media spend to store visits, across thousands of campaigns and hundreds of partners, cementing Placed as the leader in location-based attribution,” Shim wrote in a blog post. “By partnering with Snap, we will do even more.”

Prior to its acquisition, Placed had raised roughly $13.4 million in three funding rounds from the likes of Madrona Venture Group, Shane Atchison, and Two Sigma Ventures.