Ad-tech startup Streamlyn connects global advertisers with right publishers

This online advertising company, which uses cutting-edge technology to help small and medium-sized online publishers leverage their assets in the digital ad space, has clients in more than 25 countries

Streamlyn works on both sides of the spectrum in the digital advertising world, as an agency and as a supply-side platform. It helps advertisers deliver the message to the right audience, helping them get better ROI, and aids online publishers to monetise their digital ad space.

Programmatic advertising is an automated technology that facilitates the buying and selling of media without human intervention. Being an automated and technology-driven process, it uses algorithm-based strategies, helping advertisers to spontaneously display ads to their audience on a publisher web page. This happens within a time frame of 200 milliseconds through real-time bidding (RTB) process.

Streamlyn has two offerings, designed for advertisers and publishers — BidsXchange and StreamX.

BidsXchange is a self-serve user-friendly portal for small and medium sized advertisers to upload their ads in the system. Once uploaded, advertisers can target the desired publishers and audience interest, such as shopping, technology, finance, etc.

StreamX, on the other hand, is a self-serve portal for publishers, which allows them to login and procure scripts from the system and later use on their platforms for displaying ads. The portal provides ads from different demand partners along with ads from BidsXchange, ensuring that publishers leverage the huge user base and generate extra revenues.

Launched in July 2015, Streamlyn is based out of Singapore and has operations in Bengaluru. The innovative platform is the brainchild of IIT alumni Naveen Kumar Chennala and Raja Chakraborty. Initially, Steamlyn started its journey from a two-BHK flat with just the two co-founders onboard and a portfolio of five clients. Today, the company works from a 3,500 sqft office, and is backed by a team of 25 people. It has clients in more than 25 countries and is working with more than 110 partners across the globe.

“The main challenge we faced during the setup was getting the use case scenario from different companies. We wanted to understand the pain points from both the sides and how to solve them. Companies were reluctant to share any details about their business. Once we collected enough data, the next challenge was to bring the logic into existence with a working technology,” says Raja Chakraborty, Chief Operating Officer, Streamlyn.

Creating a niche in the ad-tech space

According to eMarketer (US-based market research firm focused on digital marketing, media, and commerce), 67 percent of the total digital display ad spends in the US is programmatic. Besides, in the UK, programmatic display ad market will be worth $4.08 billion this year, up by 44 percent from 2015.

While programmatic advertising is still in a nascent stage in India, many startups are now focusing on reaping the benefits of this technology. Such startups include YuktaMedia, Sokrati, AdPushup, Zirca, among others. Big giants including Google, Facebook and Twitter have already cornered a significant share of the ad-tech market.

However, Streamlyn’s in-house developed processes such as anti-fraud filter, real-time robust reporting and its proprietary technology — programmatic optimisation engine (a mixture of machine learning and artificial intelligence technology) — has strengthened the brand’s position in the ad-tech space.

Using cutting-edge technologies

Leveraging the power of machine learning and artificial intelligence, Streamlyn is helping publishers and advertisers tackle ad fraud in online advertising and scale their businesses effectively. The brand uses its patented technology, programmatic optimisation engine (POE), anti-fraud algorithm, along with a human auditing team to ensure all ads and inventory passing through Streamlyn are brand safe. Delivering on its promise to help clients in preventing online ad fraud, the company also partners with ad security platforms like Integral Ad Science and GeoEdge as quality assurance (QA) tools.

Plans for the future

The advertising company is operating on a self-funded model with debt-free operations so far. However, the brand is looking to raise funds of $3 million to enter the international market. Streamlyn reached breakeven after six months of starting the operations and is currently witnessing a growth of 20 percent month on month.

Streamlyn raised revenues of $170,000 in 2015, the year they started out, and clocked an annual turnover of $1.3 million last year. Going ahead, the brand is aiming to achieve $3 million in revenues at the end of this financial year and plans to expand its presence to the APAC region, including Japan and Australia.