Israeli Recommendation Platform Outbrain Raises $200M

Israeli content recommendation firm Outbrain announced on Tuesday that it has secured $200 million in funding from Boston-based investment manager The Baupost Group.

The announcement comes on the heels of last week’s news that Outbrain had filed a registration statement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Tuesday for a proposed initial public offering (IPO.)

Outbrain applied to list its common stock on the NASDAQ  under the ticker symbol “OB.”

“We are excited to announce this investment from The Baupost Group, who share our vision and commitment for our business, our team, and our future prospects,” said David Kostman, co-CEO of Outbrain.

“We proudly lead the recommendation space we created. We have bold plans for the future to continue delivering critical innovation to our premium media partners worldwide and expanding our powerful open web global advertising platform,” added Yaron Galai, co-founder and co-CEO of Outbrain.

Outbrain was founded in 2006 by Yaron Galai and Ori Lahav as an online advertising company specializing in presenting sponsored website links. In other words, Outbrain’s native advertising platform reaches an engaged audience through distribution on top publishing sites.

The company has grown to hold 18 offices worldwide and boasts an impressive 275 billion monthly recommendations in 14 different languages. Customers include CNN, the BBC, Mashable, MSNBC, Slate, Haaretz, and Le Parisien. Outbrain provides publishers with a service for recommended links to increase traffic and generate revenue.

In 2019, Outbrain and rival Israeli content recommendation firm Taboola announced that they were merging in a bid to challenge Google and Facebook’s advertising duopoly. As part of the deal, Taboola was set to pay $250 million for 30 percent of Outbrain’s shares and will hold a 70 percent stake in the merged entity,

Nearly a year later, the deal fell through largely due to market changes brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic., according to people familiar with the matter.