Viant Technology Inc., a leader in CTV and AI-powered programmatic advertising, announced it acquired Lockr, the first-party data collaboration platform built to enable content owners to collect, enrich, and activate first-party data. Keith Petri will continue to lead Lockr as its CEO.

“We are excited to join the Viant team,” said Keith Petri, Founder and CEO of Lockr. “The combination of Viant and Lockr is sure to accelerate innovation and deliver impactful client solutions.”

“Addressability is the future of advertising and Viant’s acquisition of Lockr is expected to accelerate its arrival across the programmatic ecosystem, ” said Tim Vanderhook, CEO of Viant Technology. “The company’s founder, Keith Petri, is a well known leader in the AdTech industry, having spent 15 years dedicated to advances in data management. Keith’s trusted expertise aligns seamlessly with our vision for the future. Similar to IRIS_ID, we plan to make Lockr’s solutions open to the entire ecosystem including other alternative identifiers, as Viant is committed to helping the broader open internet succeed.”

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Publishers and content owners who partner with Lockr can integrate their first-party data seamlessly and enable a number of alternative ID partners in the programmatic ecosystem. Without Lockr, data integrations with publishers typically require significant engineering resources, software deployment, and maintenance. Lockr significantly reduces the time and resources needed for data integrations, helping publishers accelerate their advertising business by leveraging first-party data.

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What’s more, Lockr enables the application of first-party data as a signal in the bid-stream, propagating the addressability of ad campaigns. Viant’s acquisition of Lockr is expected to accelerate industry adoption of both Viant’s Household ID and IRIS_ID while helping publishers offer addressable advertising solutions as an alternative to walled gardens.

“We are excited to join the Viant team,” said Keith Petri, Founder and CEO of Lockr. “Tim and Chris Vanderhook have been leaders in digital advertising for 25+ years and are proven visionaries on the most critical topics facing the industry right now, including: CTV, AI innovation, identity and measurement. I am confident that the combination of Viant and Lockr is sure to accelerate innovation and deliver impactful client solutions.”