ArcSpan raised a $5.2 million seed extension to further build out its AI-driven audience monetization tools, which help publishers package and activate first-party data.
The publisher monetization startup ArcSpan raised $5.2 million in a seed extension round Wednesday. It will use the fund to invest in its tool set, which simplifies how publishers can use their first-party data, according to Co-Founder and CEO Arthur Muldoon.
The additional funds will go to building tools that support RevOps professionals’ ability to build audiences, create transparency in data curation and offer robust measurement capabilities.
The $5.2 million follows the $6 million in seed funding raised in 2021, which spurred the development of its first-party data tool, dubbed Audience Monetization System (AMS), in 2023. ArcSpan built the tool out of the belief that publishers needed better tools to extract value from their data using AI-driven curation, privacy-first design and simplified workflows.
To shape the initial platform, ArcSpan consulted with more than 20 RevOps publishers to understand what current tools were lacking. The company found that publishers needed to unlock new revenue by packaging first-party data more effectively and activating it through private marketplaces (PMPs).
In addition, the investment will support continued development of identity solutions and the use of AI.
A group of ad tech veterans and tech leaders invested in this round of funding, with Aperiam Ventures as the most recognizable institutional investor, said Muldoon. ArcSpan remains a lean team of around 15 people, but it’s already serving a global publisher base across North America, EMEA and APAC.
“We recognize there’s demand and interest for what we’re doing,” said Muldoon. “This capital raise is going to help us accelerate technical development and expand our ability to reach and support publishers globally.”
ArcSpan’s End-to-End Publisher Tool Kit
As publishers face traffic declines, staffing cuts and increasing pressure to prove media quality, ArcSpan sees an opportunity to help them adapt and thrive.
First, ArcSpan updated their audience builder tool through extensive testing with publisher RevOps teams. The tool provides a clean and intuitive interface for building precise audience segments. And part of the intuitiveness now comes through the incorporation of AI.
“We moved toward agentic solutions where teams can use plain-English inputs, like target personas or goals, and the system helps generate optimized audience segments,” said Co-Founder and CCO Garret Vreeland.
To make targeting easier right out of the gate, the platform comes packed with ready-to-use data. This includes contextual and behavioral signals and demographic insights alongside niche shopping data tied to retail and sports. As Muldoon put it, the system takes care of the heavy lifting so publishers can reach more of the right audiences without getting bogged down in data wrangling.
Beyond audience creation, ArcSpan created a PMP hub to give publishers more control in the curation process. Framed as a more collaborative approach between the sell side and buy side, the tool aims to address common concerns about opaque curation models that limit visibility and often extract publisher data without clear value in return.
Supporting it all is the measurement tool, which provides a scorecard of media quality. It analyzes key performance factors, such as refresh rates and page density, to help publishers optimize both user experience and revenue.
The results speak for themselves: One large publisher using ArcSpan’s stack saw a 107% lift in audience-targeted deal revenue and a 97% boost in click-through and viewability rates.
Clarity, Trust and Efficiency Are the Publisher’s Path Forward
“This is a noisy, uncertain period; it’s like moving through a fog,” said Muldoon. “But publishers with premium content will continue to draw audiences and advertiser demand. Great content powers AI outputs, and we’re focused on helping publishers reinvent themselves around that.”
ArcSpan views audience signals as a key part of that reinvention. “Trust and transactions are our North Star,” said Muldoon.
Technology alone isn’t enough; it needs to be usable, Vreeland said. ArcSpan has no-code onboarding and a hands-on support team. For example: “We know publishers don’t have time to work through clunky platforms. That’s why we’ve built a system that’s intuitive, efficient and requires minimal lift to get started.”