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The 2025 Ad Money A-List: Top 15 Advertising Investors (CTV, Retail Media, Adtech) You Should Pitch Next

Deqian Jia
Deqian Jia
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You're doing the right homework. Picking investors who actually live and breathe ads—rather than "tourists"—will save you cycles and raise your odds. Below is a tight, founder-first guide to 2025's most active, respected advertising investors (adtech, CTV/OTT, retail media, in-game, measurement, creative AI, identity, DOOH, and creator/influencer/ad-commerce). It's designed to be the piece you keep open while shortlisting and pitching.

1) How to pick the right advertising investors (fast but rigorous)

  • Map your "ad-primitive." What part of the ad stack do you move—media buying, monetization, creative, identity/privacy, measurement/attribution, supply chain/log-level data, retail media, CTV, in-game/3D, or creator/influencer? Shortlist funds that have done ≥2 deals in your primitive in the last 24 months. (For 2025, CTV and retail media are the heaviest magnets for capital. Use that tailwind if you can legitimately frame to it.) (The Current)

  • Decide: financial vs. strategic. Corporate venture (TV platforms, media owners, holding companies, major ad platforms) brings channel access and distribution; independent funds move faster on terms. Blend them when it helps (e.g., independent lead + strategic co-invest). Recent 2025 examples show strategics taking real positions in CTV, creative AI, and performance TV. (Axios)

  • Stage truth. Seed/Series A specialists will help with product-market fit and first logos; growth investors want repeatable unit economics and clear payback around CAC/LTV and channel mix. Sector specialists can underwrite earlier if you prove incremental lift for advertisers or publishers (not just "replacement"). (Progress Ventures)

  • Proof beats promises. Bring anonymized log-level data, lift studies, or retailer/publisher LOIs. CTV/retail media buyers expect deterministic outcomes and clean measurement baselines in 2025. (tvScientific)

Why Peony is the perfect data room for advertising startups

Before diving into the investor landscape, it's worth noting that Peony has become the go-to virtual data room solution for advertising and adtech startups. With features specifically designed for marketing and media companies, Peony offers:

  • Secure document sharing for pitch decks, financial models, and campaign data
  • Advanced analytics to track investor engagement with your materials
  • Custom branding to maintain your startup's professional image
  • Integration capabilities with popular marketing and analytics tools

Many of the investors listed below specifically look for startups that can demonstrate professional data management and secure document handling—exactly what Peony provides.

2) The top 15 active advertising investors in 2025 (who they are, what they want, how to approach)

Ordered by sector fit + current-cycle activity. All are demonstrably active in adtech/advertising across 2024–2025.

1) Progress Ventures (independent, specialist)

  • Focus & stage: Sector-specialist across advertising, marketing, media tech; early to growth; hands-on operators. (Progress Ventures)
  • Recent signal: Backed tvScientific's $25.5M Series B (performance CTV). Strong CTV conviction. (Axios)
  • Why they say yes: Clear proof you help buyers/sellers automate, measure, or monetize better than status quo; real customer validation. Public commentary highlights CTV/retail media as prime growth. (The Current)

2) Aperiam Ventures (independent, specialist)

  • Focus & stage: Pure-play adtech/martech investor; seed through follow-ons; also runs advisory/orchestration that opens doors with brands/publishers. (Aperiam Ventures)
  • Recent signal: Participated in Firsthand's $26M Series A (AI brand/publisher agents). (Axios)
  • Why they say yes: You fit a clear category thesis (retail media, identity, creative AI, curation) and can show near-term revenue impact for marketers/publishers. (Aperiam Ventures Investment Focus)

3) FirstPartyCapital (independent, specialist)

  • Focus & stage: Early-stage adtech/martech micro-VC with deep operator LP base. (PR Newswire)
  • Recent signal: Integral Ad Science invested in the fund; announced fresh capital and a broader mandate in 2025—very active. (WPP)
  • Why they say yes: You're solving post-cookie targeting, measurement, retail media monetization, or publisher yield with pragmatic integrations.

4) S4S Ventures (independent, specialist; co-founded by Sir Martin Sorrell)

  • Focus & stage: Marketing/adtech across data, media, commerce; early growth. (S4S Ventures)
  • Recent signal: Investor in tvScientific and 4screen (auto/OOH connections) — shows appetite for performance CTV and new channels. (VideoWeek)
  • Why they say yes: Enterprise-ready teams selling into marketers/agencies, with proof of budget shift.

5) BDMI – Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments (independent, media-anchored)

  • Focus & stage: Digital media, adtech, commerce; North America & Europe; active new fund formation in 2025. (Bertelsmann)
  • Recent signal: Portfolio includes Boostr (media-sales CRM) and Antenna (subscription analytics) — staples for sellers and measurement. (BDMI Portfolio)
  • Why they say yes: Clear value to premium media owners or subscription-driven businesses.

6) Comcast Ventures (corporate, strategic)

  • Focus & stage: Media/advertising technology, creator & video ecosystem; invests both financially and strategically. (Comcast Ventures)
  • Recent signal: Invested in Creatify AI (video creative generation for ads) in Sept 2025. (Comcast Ventures News)
  • Why they say yes: You strengthen the TV/video ad stack (planning, creative, buying, measurement) or publisher monetization.

7) Dentsu Ventures (corporate, strategic)

  • Focus & stage: Marketing/advertising innovations globally; Japan-rooted, multi-stage. (Dentsu Ventures)
  • Why they say yes: Clear application with agency workflows, brand outcomes, or media owner yield.

8) Iris Capital (independent VC co-sponsored by Publicis & Orange)

  • Focus & stage: Digital, B2B SaaS, advertising/marketing systems; Europe-strong with global lens. (Iris Capital)
  • Why they say yes: You touch identity, privacy-safe targeting, mobile, or telco-scale audiences—areas where their sponsors are power users.

9) WPP (corporate, strategic)

  • Focus & stage: Select minority investments in tech that changes creative production, media, and data at scale. (WPP)
  • Recent signal: Minority investment in Stability AI with a formal partnership (Mar 2025) to rewire creative workflows for advertising. (WPP Stability AI Investment)
  • Why they say yes: Platform-level tech that slots into agency operating systems and moves client outcomes.

10) Brandtech Ventures (corporate, strategic; The Brandtech Group)

  • Focus & stage: Marketing/adtech platforms that compress cost and time-to-market for global brands. (VC Mapping)
  • Recent context: The Brandtech Group's 2025 funding round/valuation underscores deep firepower and M&A/partnership routes for portfolio. (Financial Times)
  • Why they say yes: You directly improve how global brands produce, personalize, and distribute creative at scale.

11) The Trade Desk Ventures (TD7) (corporate, strategic)

  • Focus & stage: Strategic investments around open internet, programmatic, identity, and publisher yield (launched as "TD7"). (The Trade Desk TD7)
  • Why they say yes: You strengthen TTD's ecosystem: curation, identity, signals, supply-path, or measurement that drives advertiser performance. (LinkedIn TD7)

12) Taboola Ventures (corporate, strategic)

  • Focus & stage: Early growth investments that help publishers/advertisers grow revenue—native, commerce, AI personalization. (Dentsu Global Ad Spend)
  • Why they say yes: You increase publisher RPM or help performance advertisers acquire customers on the open web.

13) R/GA Ventures (independent, studio + capital)

  • Focus & stage: Venture studios + checks for brand/marketing/commerce tech; unlocks pilot pipelines with global brands. (R/GA Ventures)
  • Why they say yes: You have a product ready to pilot with enterprise marketers; they can pair you with brand teams to validate quickly.

14) Sony Innovation Fund / Sony Ventures (corporate, strategic)

  • Focus & stage: Entertainment, gaming, and in-game/immersive advertising intersections; $500M+ AUM across funds. (Global Venturing)
  • Recent signal: Participated in Anzu funding (in-game ads), alongside WPP and others; ongoing interest in ad/creator infrastructure. (Tech.eu)
  • Why they say yes: You connect brands to audiences inside interactive environments or creator ecosystems.

15) Roku (corporate, strategic investing)

  • Focus & stage: CTV advertising ecosystem; invests where performance TV and TV OS scale converge. (Roku Q1 2025 Results)
  • Recent signal: Investor in tvScientific's 2025 Series B—clear appetite for performance CTV tooling. (Axios)
  • Why they say yes: You help advertisers buy, measure, or optimize on CTV, or you unlock high-quality supply outcomes for publishers.

Runners-up to track: Advancit Capital (media/tech with monetization angles), Plug and Play Ventures (Media & Ad Tech program) (small checks + BD), Mediahuis Ventures (publisher-side strategic across Europe). Useful depending on your geo and motion. (Advancit Capital)

3) Five quick, practical tips for pitching these investors

  1. Prove budget movement, not just tech elegance. Walk in with before/after metrics from live campaigns (e.g., lift, ROAS, CPx deltas) and at least one named reference willing to speak off-call. In CTV/retail media, bring a methodology one-pager on measurement (incrementality, MMM, MTA, experimentation). (tvScientific)

  2. Show stack-fit. Sketch where you sit beside the DSP/SSP/CDP/clean-room and how you reduce latency, waste, or fees. Specialists like Progress and Aperiam—and strategics like TTD7—care deeply about supply path and data lineage. (Progress Ventures)

  3. Name the 2025 tailwinds. Tie your story to CTV, retail media, privacy-safe identity, or creative AI—and why now. Investors literally call these the biggest growth opportunities this cycle. (The Current)

  4. Bring distribution wedges. If you have publisher alliances, retailer networks, OEM/OS distribution (e.g., TV platform partners), or agency MSAs—highlight them. That's the fastest way to derisk adoption for strategics like Comcast Ventures, Roku, WPP, and Brandtech. (Comcast Ventures)

  5. Be explicit about enterprise readiness. Show security reviews completed, privacy posture, log-level data handling, clean-room integrations, and a repeatable sales motion (partner-led or direct). That's what turns a pilot into a line item.

Additional Resources for Advertising Startups

If you want, I can turn this into a shortlist spreadsheet (contacts, ideal intro paths, and what data each partner cares about). You're closer than you think—your traction plus the right fit here will travel.

For more comprehensive guidance on fundraising and data room management, check out our related resources:

These resources will help you prepare the professional materials that these investors expect to see during the fundraising process.