The New York company that sells ads on screens it doesn't own - jukeboxes, gas pumps, Walmart kiosks, luxury elevators - and turned that patchwork into a 100,000-screen network.
Owning a digital screen is easy. Selling ads on it is the hard part. A screen operator needs to understand CPM pricing, auction mechanics, impression measurement, and how to get in front of national advertisers who have never heard of them. Most mid-sized networks never build that muscle, and the revenue sits on the table.
Screenverse exists to pick it up. Founded in New York in 2020, the company takes on ad sales, ad operations, measurement, and pricing for digital out-of-home (DOOH) media owners, then connects their inventory to programmatic demand through platforms like The Trade Desk and DV360. It does not own the screens. It owns the relationships, the standards, and the sales work.
Co-founder and president Adam Malone framed the founding question plainly: "How much better could some of these networks be doing if they had a dedicated team that woke up every day, working to maximize sales within this emerging programmatic channel?" That team is the product.
Screenverse works both ends of a messy supply chain. On one side are the media owners: companies with screens in the real world but no in-house programmatic sales team. On the other are advertisers and agencies that want to buy real-world screen inventory the same way they buy mobile and social.
The problem in between is fragmentation. Out-of-home is asset-heavy and scattered. A jukebox in a bar, a kiosk in a Walmart, a display on a gas pump, and a panel in a luxury elevator each reach a different person in a different moment - and each screen owner speaks a slightly different technical language.
Screenverse standardizes that chaos. It formats inventory to a common 1920x1080 spec so a brand's existing mobile or social creative runs on a billboard without a redesign, and it handles the deal setup, measurement, and pricing that individual owners struggle to do alone.
The result is one door into a deliberately diverse network. Rather than chasing premium billboards, Screenverse treats variety as the strategy - the more venue types, the more audience segments an advertiser can reach through a single relationship.
The most diverse and expansive digital screen network in the real world.
Underneath the sales work sits a technology stack built to make small networks legible to big buyers. Its tools lean on machine learning today, with further AI enhancements planned.
Exposes a media owner's inventory to programmatic demand across DSPs, handling deal setup and campaign execution.
Standardizes and manages screen metadata - formatting, quality assurance - so creative and buyers transact reliably.
Machine-learning tools that quantify impressions and ad performance for owners and advertisers.
Dynamic CPM optimization that maximizes revenue per screen through data-driven monetization.
Industry education, optimized media planning, and omnichannel campaign support across venue types.
Programmatic is a small but fast-rising share of digital out-of-home spend. Screenverse spent five years building the plumbing for that shift - serving exactly the mid-tier networks the larger platforms tend to underserve.
Its competitive neighborhood includes DOOH supply and monetization players such as Vistar Media, Place Exchange, Hivestack and Broadsign, plus the in-house teams at larger networks. Screenverse's wedge is the operator too small to justify its own programmatic desk.
Screenverse was co-founded by David Weinfeld, CEO, formerly sales director for publisher solutions at Vistar Media, and Adam Malone, president, previously VP of innovation and partnerships at DOmedia. Between them they brought more than 20 years in out-of-home - and a first-hand view of the gap they set out to close.
In April 2024 the company raised a $10.5 million Series A, with growth-equity firm Volition Capital as the sole investor. It was the entirety of what Screenverse had raised since launching, earmarked for technology R&D and a hiring plan that has since roughly doubled the team.
Volition pointed to domain expertise as the core of its thesis: a founding team that had already lived the problem, addressing a real challenge in a growing, complex market. Sometimes the team is the product.
The partner roster reads like a tour of everyday America: roughly 50,000 TouchTunes jukebox screens in bars and restaurants, Pursuant Health kiosks in Walmart, some 8,000 FuelMedia TV gas-pump displays, theBulletin's luxury residential network, and urban panels from Trailhead and Smartify.
Ex-Vistar Media publisher-solutions sales lead. Sets strategy and leads the company.
Ex-DOmedia VP of innovation and partnerships. Drives network operations and partnerships.
Boston growth-equity firm and sole backer of the $10.5M Series A.
Weinfeld and Malone leave Vistar and DOmedia to make programmatic demand accessible to mid-tier DOOH networks.
The network reaches 14 unique partnerships across major venue types.
Volition Capital funds technology R&D and a plan to nearly double the team.
Screenverse surpasses 100,000 digital screens across all 210 U.S. DMAs.
The company marks five years of growth in DOOH advertising and partnerships.
Screenverse employees are nicknamed astronauts - branding for a company treating a fragmented ad market like a frontier.
It doesn't own the 100,000+ screens it sells. It monetizes other companies' inventory.
Standardizing to one spec lets brands reuse mobile creative on billboards without a redesign.
Bars, Walmart, gas pumps and luxury elevators all sell through the same platform.
It monetizes digital out-of-home screens for media owners - handling ad sales, ad operations, measurement, and pricing - and connects their inventory to programmatic advertisers through DSPs like The Trade Desk and DV360.
It was founded in 2020 by David Weinfeld (Co-Founder & CEO, formerly of Vistar Media) and Adam Malone (Co-Founder & President, formerly of DOmedia).
More than 100,000 digital screens across roughly 20 partner networks, reaching all 210 U.S. designated market areas.
$10.5 million in a Series A led solely by Volition Capital in April 2024 - its total funding to date.
No. It partners with media owners such as TouchTunes, Pursuant Health and FuelMedia TV, selling and managing ads on their screens rather than owning the hardware.