HAMBURG, Germany and SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 12, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Smaato today announced that former PubliGroupe CEO and Ex-BVDW President Arndt Groth will join Smaato as President, effective September 12, 2017. Reporting to Ragnar Kruse, CEO of Smaato, Mr. Groth assumes responsibility for overseeing Smaato's commercial business functions.
Arndt Groth joins Smaato as the company enters its next high-growth phase, as it evolves and rapidly expands, following its acquisition late last year, towards being an end-to-end mobile advertising and monetization platform for the world's largest advertisers and most popular apps and mobile websites alike. While Smaato already reaches approximately 50% of the world's smartphone users and delivers more than 19 billion daily ad impressions globally, its partnership with Chinese acquirer Spearhead Marketing Communications Group in December 2016 was a game changer, ideally positioning Smaato for further expansion in the world's second largest and rapidly ascending mobile advertising spending marketplace China, and for further enlarging Smaato's portfolio.
While Mr. Groth will play a key role in building Smaato's business in all the world's top mobile advertising markets, the expansion of the executive team will allow Smaato to focus even more attention on China and expanding Smaato's capabilities. Although the US will remain Smaato's largest market for the foreseeable future, Smaato is already realizing significant success in China. In the first eight months of 2017, China surpassed the US on the Smaato platform in yielding the highest mobile ad space values (eCPMs) in the world for app developers and mobile website publishers, as global advertisers seek out China's sophisticated, high-spending smartphone-centric consumers. Mr. Groth's arrival will further accelerate Smaato's growth.
"Arndt Groth is a strong addition to Smaato's executive team and an excellent match," said Smaato CEO and Co-Founder Ragnar Kruse. "Arndt is one of digital marketing's pioneers with a proven track record of leading highly successful global companies -- from tech startups to large publicly traded companies. Leveraging his breadth and depth of experience, Arndt will play a critical role in Smaato's next evolutionary stage."
Mr. Groth was most recently the CEO of PubliGroupe AG in Lausanne, Switzerland, which was acquired by Swisscom AG. His previous roles include International Vice President, Northern Europe, for DoubleClick (Google) and CEO of InteractiveMedia CCSP AG, a subsidiary of T-Online International AG, one of Europe's largest online marketers, and European President Europe of Adconion Media Group. For 10 years, Mr. Groth was also President of the BVDW (Bundesverband Digitale Wirtschaft e.V.), Germany's leading digital marketing association and "Co-Founder" of dmexco.
"I am excited to join this fast-growing, dynamic company," said Groth. "I have known Ragnar for many years and have closely followed the impressive transformation of Smaato since its inception. Mobile marketing is the media channel of the future, and China is already the largest economy globally based on purchasing power. With our Chinese partner Spearhead, Smaato is ideally and uniquely positioned to expand quickly in the fast-growing mobile media market in Asia, and particularly in China."
About Smaato
Smaato is the leading global real-time mobile advertising platform, connecting 10,000+ advertisers – including 91 of the Top 100 Ad Age brands -- with over 90,000 app developers and mobile web publishers. Smaato manages up to 19 billion mobile ad impressions daily and reaches over 1 billion unique mobile users monthly. Founded in 2005 by mobile pioneers Ragnar Kruse and Petra Vorsteher, Smaato has global headquarters in San Francisco, California, with additional offices in Hamburg, Germany, New York and Singapore. Learn more at www.smaato.com.
