Global Advertising Company Acquires Israeli Fact-Checking Startup

Zefr, a global company that determines the suitability of ads across the world’s most popular platforms, has acquired Israeli AI ad-verification company AdVerif.ai. 

AdVerif.ai is a Caesarea-based startup that provides verification solutions for advertisers, publishers, and ad networks. The company integrates over 50 fact-checking organizations around the world, which helps train machine learning algorithms to identify, label, and measure misinformation at rapid speed. Their algorithms are also capable of identifying convincing fake images and posts, including COVID-19 misinformation.

The startup was initially founded in 2018 as a game, testing users’ abilities of distinguishing fake from real headlines.

“Defunding misinformation is critical for brands, and it requires investment in technology solutions to ensure accuracy and scalability,” said Chris Murphy, SVP of Global Business Development, Zefr.

Though social platforms have invested considerable money in content moderation, misinformation continues to persist. A study from New York University and Université Grenoble, in France found that news publishers known for putting out misinformation got six times the amount of likes, shares and interactions on Facebook than reputable news sources did around the 2020 election.

“After diligencing the industry for a year, it became clear that Adverif.ai’s AI and tech-led approach was uniquely equipped to bring a scalable, unbiased and data-driven lens to the topic and seamlessly integrate with our existing platform, Cognition AI.”

“We are delighted to join Zefr’s mission and bring best-in-class technology solutions to scale brand suitability across the world’s largest platforms,” said Or Levi, founder and CEO of Adverif.ai. “Our technology is designed to deliver advertisers accurate and transparent data on misinformation, and we look forward to realizing Adverif.ai’s full potential as part of Zefr.”

Zefr is an advertising company that creates targeted video ad placements with its unique technology. It utilizes both technology and human review to select individual videos, which helps brands effectively scale their video ad campaigns.

Rather than rely on keywords, Zefr uses its patented Cognition AI technology to offer brands more accurate and transparent targeting. This helps brands be in better control of their content adjacency, or where their advertisements will run, on scaled platforms including YouTube, TikTok and Meta.