Adjust acquires Unbotify, Israeli cyber security and AI tech startup

Adjust, the mobile measurement company, has acquired Tel Aviv, Israel-based cyber security and AI startup Unbotify for an undisclosed amount. This is Adjust’s second acquisition since founded in 2012. In December 2018, Adjust acquired the data aggregation platform Acquired.io. The comprehensive SaaS solution automates and simplifies multi-channel campaign management for mobile user acquisition. The acquisition was part of Adjust’s goal to unify advertisers’ marketing efforts and build the best-in-class product. The acquisition of Unbotify will Adjust to bolster its technology and help marketers combat advertising and in-app fraud by leveraging Unbotify’s behavioral biometrics bot detection technology.

As part of the acquisition agreement, Unbotify will continue to operate as an independent unit. Its office will remain in Tel Aviv and will be further expanded, increasing the team by 100% this year – extending Adjust’s global footprint to 15 offices worldwide. Since 2013, Adjust has more than doubled its revenues every two years, and grown to 300 employees while maintaining profitability.

The acquisition was financed through debt financing provided by TriplePoint Capital and plans further investments to fully integrate Unbotify’s technology into Adjust’s Fraud Prevention Suite. The acquisitions and enhancements to Adjust’s flagship offering form a bigger part of the company’s commitment to offer the best-in-class product and vision to fight digital fraud on a global scale and improve advertisers’ marketing efforts. As the initiator of the Coalition Against Ad Fraud ( CAAF ) in 2017 – a concerted effort of industry leaders to mitigate the multi-billion dollar fraud market and its impact on advertisers’ ad budgets – this move is another step forward to create more transparency and trust for Adjust’s global, fast-growing client base.

In a blog post, Adjust CEO Christian Henschel said: “Today, we are excited to announce that Adjust has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the award-winning cybersecurity and AI startup Unbotify. Following the acquisition of the data aggregation platform Acquired.io in December 2018, we continue to bolster our product offering by adding Unbotify’s disruptive technology to our Fraud Prevention Suite.”

Founded in 2012 by Christian Henschel, Manuel Kniep, and Paul Müller, Adjust is the industry leader in mobile measurement and fraud prevention. It provides high-quality analytics, measurement and fraud prevention solutions for mobile app marketers worldwide, enabling them to make smarter, faster marketing decisions. Adjust is a marketing partner with all major platforms, including Facebook, Google, Snap, Twitter, Line, and WeChat. In total, more than 25,000 apps have implemented Adjust’s solutions to improve their performance.

Unbotify was founded in 2015 by Yaron Oliker and Alon Dayan. The startup is known for its pioneering approach on bot detection and digital fraud prevention, and was named by Fast Company as ‘Israel’s most innovative company in 2017’ and listed as one of the Gartner’s ‘2018 Cool Vendors in Advertising’. The startup consists of a team of 25 data scientists, former IBM managers and machine learning specialists with P.h.D.s in Computer Science and Physics. Unbotify is working with Fortune 500 companies in E-commerce, Social, Search and Gaming across the U.S. and Europe.

“Adjust is the pioneer in mobile ad fraud prevention, and we are on a mission to bring more trust and transparency into the digital advertising industry. Combining the scale and experience of Adjust with the highly-skilled team and machine learning capabilities of Unbotify will propel Adjust’s flagship platform even further as the most robust Fraud Prevention Suite in the industry,” said Christian Henschel, Co-Founder and CEO of Adjust.

Unbotify’s detection technology uses machine learning (ML) and deep learning to analyze hundreds of features extracted from data on device orientation, touch events, pressure sensitivity among others to detect bots. It empowers marketers to determine fraudulent bot activities without obscuring any legitimate human traffic – ensuring that app publishers engage with actual human audiences.

“Fighting digital fraud is often referred to as a cat-and-mouse game, because fraudsters catch up so fast. That’s why we decided to not raise the bar just a little, but to look at the data points which are the hardest for them to fake – human behavior, thus flipping the fundamental economics in favor of the defender.” said Yaron Oliker, Co-Founder and CEO at Unbotify. “Merging our real-time bot detection technology with Adjust’s highly advanced fraud filters will fortify Adjust’s position as the market leader in fraud prevention and put an end to the billions in ad fraud losses.”