Chango inc was an online marketing company in the field of data-driven digital advertising, specializing in search retargeting and programmatic marketing. The company was founded in 2008, acquired by Rubicon Project in 2015 for $122 million, and closed down in 2017 after its performance did not meet expectations. It used to be headquartered in Toronto with sales offices in NYC, San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Seattle, Austin and London.
History
The company was founded in Toronto by Chris Sukornyk. Sukornyk previously co-founded the X-Stream Network, Bubbleshare and FiveLimes. Sukornyk devoted the first 12 months on research and development. In June 2010, Chango raised $1.4 million in Series A funding. Metamorphic Ventures joined existing investors such as iNovia Capital and Extreme Venture Partners. The company secured a second round of funding in February 2011. The new funding led by Rho Canada, with iNovia Capital, Metamorphic Ventures, Extreme Venture Partners and 24/7 Media co-founder, Geoff Judge; participating in the round. The funding went into hiring additional resources in the engineering team, clients services and business development roles. In November 2012, Chango Inc., secured $12 million in funding. All of Chango's existing investors including iNovia, Rho Canada Ventures, Metamorphic Ventures, Mantella Venture Partners and Extreme Venture Partners took their full allocation in the round. In addition to Chris Sukornyk and Mazdak Rezvani, Chango's founding team includes Internet and Display media veteran Dax Hamman. in 2012, Chango hired Paul McIntyre, and recently hired Keith Lorizio to take Chango to new levels. Most recently, Chango was recognized in Deloitte's Technology Fast 50 program and was ranked first overall in Canada with a growth rate of 69,800% Rubicon the company that acquired Chango in 2015 decided to shut down the project in 2017 stating that the company did not meet performance expectations.
Product
Chango was one of the pioneers to offer Search Retargeting. The company serves display ads to potential customers based on their recent search activity. As of the first quarter of 2013, Chango was working with 75 of the top 500 Internet Retailers. Chango claims to be able to capture the recent search activity of hundreds of millions of users, using anonymous cookies. The company then re-targets display advertisement to users if they match a specific campaign. Display advertisement is purchased through a Demand Side Platform that operates across multiple ad networks, such as appnexus, rubicon and double click. Chango is a member of the Network Advertising Initiative. This allows consumers to "opt out" of the search retargeting campaigns delivered by Chango and partners. The company says that it does not capture Personally Identifiable Information. In December 2012, Chango Inc. integrated directly with Facebook to bring search intent data to social media targeting. More recently, Chango Inc released the industry's first programmatic marketing platform, which combines Data Management Platform with Demand Side Platform capabilities.
