Founder: Kamakshi Sivaramakrishnan (CEO)
Launched: 2010
Funding: $48.5 million
Valuation: $175 million (PitchBook)
Disrupting: Ad targeting, digital marketing
Rival: N/A
George Kavallines
This San Mateo, California-based company has built a technology platform that allows companies to identify the multiple devices (phone, laptop, tablet) that are most likely being used by the same person. This enables brands to better target their ads and messaging. So for instance, if a company is using Drawbridge's technology, the activity you're (anonymously) engaged in on your desktop or laptop could influence the ads you see pushed out to you on your smartphone. If you then make a purchase on your laptop, Drawbridge can tell the advertiser which ad prompted you to do so.
Read More FULL LIST: 2017 DISRUPTOR 50
The company is also pairing that cross-device data with offline purchases as well. In other words, it can determine if a mobile ad pushed you to buy something in a brick-and-mortar store.
Founder and CEO Sivaramakrishnan was the chief scientist at Admob (acquired by Google in 2009 for $750 million) before she started Drawbridge in 2010. The company says its customers include retailers, restaurant chains, consumer electronics, health-care systems and state tourism boards. So far Drawbridge has attracted money from the biggest names in venture capital: Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Sequoia Capital are among the firms that have invested a little more than $48 million in the company.
