Ctrlshift

CtrlShift was founded in January 2015 from the merger of three advertising technology companies: scientific media buying platform AdzCentral founded by Reza Behnam; digital consultancy Better founded by Rene E. Menezes; and ad-tech distribution company Asia Digital Ventures founded by Pete Yoong. It was backed by venture capital firms Digital Media Partners, IDM Venture Capital, the Singapore National Research Foundation and CFF Partners. In May 2015, CtrlShift was listed in Founders Grid’s top 50 thriving startups in Southeast Asia. In August 2017, the company launched The Hub, its enterprise programmatic advertising software for unified media planning, activation and insights. It aggregates platforms (social, search, RTB, native) to streamline digital media management. The platform was integrated with many major advertising platforms and publishers, including MediaMath, AppNexus, Google's DV360, Facebook, Zemanta, TubeMogul, iflix and China's iPinYou. CtrlShift also founded and hosted AMP, Asia’s first multi-publisher, multi-geography marketplace for premium inventory. The company divested its managed services unit The Studio in January 2019, with Taiwanese firm adGeek acquiring a majority stake in the business. The move was in line with the company’s focus on technology and expanding its software-as-a-service (SaaS) business with The Hub. In September 2020, in the thick of the covid-19 pandemic, the company paused operations. Its game-changing technology platform, The Hub, has since been acquired and continues to be an instrumental part of advanced brands' tech stack, simplifying the complex task of executing digital initiatives across markets, channels and languages. The company's 150-strong alumni, many of whom are now in leadership positions across southeast Asia's adtech and advertising industries, are proud of the impact CtrlShift made in the world of advertising and marketing.