Madhive makes the
big screen local.

A local television salesperson knows something an advertising algorithm does not: which business owner will answer the phone. The owner, in turn, knows roughly how far customers will drive for a sofa, a service appointment, or dinner. Between those two kinds of knowledge sits a surprisingly difficult software problem. How do you reach the right households when their television viewing has scattered across streaming services?

Madhive has built its business in that gap. Founded in 2016 by Adam Helfgott and Tom Bollich, it supplies the machinery that lets local media companies follow viewers into connected television, or CTV. Fox, Scripps, Hearst, and agencies such as Lifebrands use its technology. The small business buying the campaign may know its media representative better than it knows the company operating underneath.

The customer already had a salesperson

That arrangement matters. Building a streaming advertising business could mean finding thousands of local advertisers individually. Madhive instead equips organizations that already have those relationships. A broadcaster can offer streaming reach alongside its existing business. An agency can build a geographically specific campaign without assembling every technical component itself.

The product is a demand-side platform, or DSP: software that helps advertisers buy digital ad opportunities. Madhive combines its own bidding technology with a device graph, which connects audience signals across devices and households. Buyers can bring first-party customer data, add third-party audience segments, and use viewing information to shape a plan. Geography is a working control, rather than an afterthought.

Imagine a dealership serving a handful of ZIP codes. Its planner can compare audiences and schedules, select inventory, launch the campaign, and inspect delivery and outcomes. This is an illustration of the workflow, not a customer result. The point is practical: the dealer needs reachable prospective buyers within its trading area, and the seller needs an economical way to provide them.

The expensive part of a small campaign

In June 2025, Madhive said the local campaigns it managed had average budgets below $5,000. That is an unusually revealing detail. A small budget leaves little room for hours of manual setup, spreadsheets, and repeated handoffs. Software has to make the work manageable for the seller as well as make the audience available to the buyer.

This explains the Frequence acquisition. Announced in June 2024 and completed that July, the deal added sales enablement and omnichannel workflow capabilities. Frequence brought proposals, planning, creative tools, and campaign operations. Madhive brought its CTV buying infrastructure. The combination expanded the proposition across channels including display, audio, search, social, and out-of-home.

The price was not disclosed. The strategic logic was easier to see: a capable buying engine still needs a route from the sales conversation to an executable campaign. Bringing those stages together offers local media companies a way to sell more than one channel without multiplying the operational burden every time.

Goldman brings the oxygen

There was a financial turning point before the acquisition. In June 2023, Goldman Sachs Asset Management announced a $300 million investment. Contemporary reporting described a significant minority stake and a valuation approaching $1 billion. Some proceeds went to founders; the rest supported expansion. Investment size should not be confused with cash available entirely for product development.

Broadcasting+Cable reported that Madhive had raised only about $7 million previously and was not really seeking capital. A meeting at CES helped change that calculation: Goldman offered money and resources to accelerate growth. AdExchanger reported roughly $125 million in 2022 revenue. Those figures describe that period, not the company’s finances today.

“We just want to be infrastructure that people can build products on”Spencer Potts, then incoming CEO, June 2023

The remark captures a useful distinction in the market. Buyers can consider broad platforms such as The Trade Desk or Google’s Display & Video 360. Madhive’s case rests on how closely its tools fit local selling, small campaigns, and geographic fragmentation. Buyers still have to judge inventory access, service, economics, and measurement against their own requirements.

Automation meets the local map

Maverick AI, launched in April 2025, extends that workflow argument. Madhive presents it as an intelligence layer spanning planning, activation, and measurement. In May 2026, it announced agents intended to create plans faster and optimize delivery and budgets. The announcement described a rollout over the following year, so the entire suite should not be treated as universally available already.

The company also introduced an MCP server, a standard interface through which language models can interact with campaign functions. In June, Gray Media announced a partnership covering Madhive’s omnichannel platform and AI capabilities. Jim Wilson, who became CEO in October 2025, now leads the business. He previously founded Premion, Madhive’s original client.

The latest addition, announced October 22, 2026, is an AdImpact partnership bringing competitive spending intelligence into the platform. Knowing who is advertising in a market, and where, can help a seller identify opportunities before building a proposal. The trajectory is toward a system that helps decide what to pitch as well as where to place it.

A view is only the beginning

Measurement remains the hard question. Madhive offers reporting on conversions, foot traffic, brand lift, and app engagement. Its Fraud Free Guarantee offers credits for suspect traffic subject to criteria. Neither makes a completed video equivalent to an incremental sale. Attribution links events; establishing that advertising caused a purchase requires a stronger comparison.

There are practical boundaries, too. Narrow the geography and audience far enough, and available inventory limits delivery. Automating a weak offer cannot make it compelling. The transferable lesson is to build around the customer’s actual constraints: existing relationships, limited budgets, and work that must get done repeatedly. Madhive’s bet is that local knowledge becomes more valuable when the machinery finally catches up.