For a long time, adtech startups regularly picked up billions of dollars in venture funding in a given year.

Not anymore.

So far this year, U.S. advertising-focused startups have raised only around $360 million, per Crunchbase data. That puts the industry on track for the slowest year in over a decade.

For a sense of how far funding has fallen, we charted out annual adtech investment from 2015 till today.

In addition to putting less money into the space, investors are also backing fewer deals. Round counts this year are also on track to hit the lowest level in years.

Why so down?

What gives? Per Anindya Ghose, a professor of technology and marketing at NYU Stern School of Business, the decline in adtech investment “can be largely attributed to market saturation, increased regulatory pressures, and economic uncertainties.”

For anyone who spends time online, the notion of market saturation isn’t hard to comprehend. Everywhere we go online, we see ads. They include creepy, micro-targeted promotions delivered via tracking apps, flashing videos that strain the eye, and pleas for money interrupting our social media scrolls.

No one is saying: It would be great to see more ads. And so, it’s not entirely surprising to see that VCs aren’t putting so much money into new platforms for ad delivery.

As for regulatory pressure, stricter privacy rules like the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, and the California Consumer Privacy Act, or CCPA, enacted a few years ago, add to compliance costs and complexities for adtech companies, Ghose observed. It can be particularly daunting for startups.

Startup pullback not reflected in public markets

As startup funding withers, mature adtech companies haven’t been doing too badly. True, shares of many of the larger publicly traded companies in the space are down a lot from the market peak. But for the most part, stocks haven’t cratered.

One star standout is The Trade Desk, a marketing automation platform that is currently a $43 billion market cap company, profitable, with nearly $2 billion in annual revenue last year. The Ventura, California, company pitches itself as a platform for advertisers who want to target messages to customers across the “open internet.”

Other significant public companies that once raised venture backing include DoubleVerify, Magnite, Taboola and PubMatic. Of course, the deepest-pocketed companies with sophisticated advertising technology offerings are the biggest internet companies, like Google and Meta.

Some startups still securing sizable rounds

Among startups, there are a few companies that secured good-sized rounds this year.

The largest funding recipient is longtime unicorn The Brandtech Group, which picked up $115 million in a March Series C. The company describes itself as operating at the intersection of generative AI and advertising.

Durham, North Carolina-based Kevel, a provider of ad-serving software tools, raised $23 million in a March Series C. And Chicago-based Vibe, a platform for advertising on streaming TV apps, landed a $22.5 million Series A in late February.

In total, per Crunchbase data, there were 10 funding rounds this year of $10 million or more for advertising or marketing-related startups.

How adtech VC funding might get its groove back

While this year may be sluggish, Ghose is optimistic that adtech startup funding will eventually make a comeback, particularly for those adept in leveraging AI technology for compelling use cases.

Certainly longer-term funding data supports the notion that recent repressed investment levels are something of an anomaly. While we may not get back to the heights of 2021, a reversion to the norm for the past decade would still mean significantly more funding than we’re seeing presently.

For now, we remain as glued to our screens as ever. So when funding comes back, digital advertisers know where to find us.

Related Crunchbase Pro lists:

• US Advertising- And Marketing-Related Startup Funding
• Advertising- And Marketing-Related US 2024 Funding Rounds Of $10M+

Illustration: Dom Guzman