Ve Interactive

Ve Interactive

Type	Private
Industry	Digital Advertising, eCommerce, Re-engagement, Website Optimisation
Founded	2009 (2009)
Founders	Steve Clucas/David J. Brown
Headquarters	Clerkenwell, East London
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Morten Tonnesen CEO
Products	VeAds, VePanel
Number of employees	~1,000
Website	VeInteractive.com

Ve Interactive is a technology company based in London ^[1] which has about 1,000 staff.^[2] Founded in 2009, it was bought out of administration (bankruptcy) for £2 million in 2017. Ve supplies companies in the e-commerce industry with programmatic video, display prospecting and re-targeting, onsite real-time engagement and email remarketing. It was located in the Clerkenwell area of London, in the technology district of East London Tech City, but moved to Moorgate area of the City of London in June 2017.

History

Ve Interactive was established in London in October 2009 as a technology startup by David J. Brown,^[3] a British entrepreneur. As of 2017 it operated offices in 28 countries. Some of the company's growth has been organic, however the company has also expanded through several acquisitions:

• June 2012: Ve acquired Adaptive Consultancy,^[4] making Ve’s platform the world’s first eCommerce software to have both remarketing technology and built-in basket recovery.
• April 2014: Ve acquired adGenie, a prospecting and retargeting advertising solution provider.^[5]
• November 2014: Ve acquired GDM Digital,^[6] an adtech and digital advertising company, for £7 million. All their staff were transferred over to Ve's team.
• November 2014: Ve acquired Qunb, a Paris-based data visualisation start-up, for $12 million, adding all their staff to Ve's Paris office.
• December 2015: Ve acquired the Display Retargeting business from eBay Enterprise Marketing Solutions.^[7]
• September 2016: Ve acquired video advertising company Optomaton for the sum of €5.13m, for cash and shares in Ve.^[8]
• December 2016: Ve acquired London-based media agency Crave & Lamb (established in 2012) for the sum of £3m.^[9]

Former Ve Interactive's HQ in Clerkenwell area of London

Funding

A portion of Ve Interactive’s funding comes from a group of Angel Investors. In May 2017 Ve Interactive, previously valued by some investors at £1.5 bn, was bought out of administration for £2 million.^[10]

Mismanagement and fraud allegations

In May 2017 UK media reported that the former CEO of Ve Interactive David J Brown was investigated for fraud.^[11] The Sunday Times alleged that Brown was using company cash to rent luxury apartments in London and used funds of investors to finance other businesses without the investors' consent. Brown denied such allegations. The current management of the company reportedly attempted to distance itself from the practices under the previous management.^[12] In June 2017 the UK media reported that the new owners of the company were considering taking actions against the former management of the company for "causing or exacerbating the company's insolvency".^[13]

Also in June 2017 the UK media reported that "Ve Interactive might not have actually owned its US branch".^[14] Its US operation Ve Interactive LLC, launched in 2011, was a separate and independent company, and as of April 2017 Ve did not own its shares. Lawyers of former CEO David Brown claimed that Ve Interactive owned 50.1% of the US business.

In July 2017 the UK media reported that at the time went Ve Interactive had gone into administration in April, it was owed £9.8 m by companies linked to the former management and not formally part of the firm. ^[15] The former management denied any allegations of wrongdoing.

References

External links

• Ve Interactive official website.