More than 7,000 ad tech startups launched in 2022 globally, with over 2,000 in the United States alone, according to a report by Tracxn.

However, beneath this remarkable growth are complexities that hinder the progress and innovation of these startups. The industry’s fragmented nature, with each platform operating under its own set of rules, integration methods and specifications, poses formidable challenges.

Digital advertising is always going through a sea of change. Personalized ads have emerged as a powerful tool to captivate consumers. Nowadays, brands and advertisers have the capability to tailor their messaging to specific demographics based on their interests, income and behavior. This level of personalization and targeting has given rise to privacy and data protection issues. Advertisers and brands have to be vigilant about the kind of data they collect and need to ensure they are not violating users’ privacy.

Cofounder and COO Akaash Ramakrishnan thinks artificial intelligence should be seen as a tool that assists humans, not one displacing them from their jobs.

From artists to journalists, lately everyone seems to love or hate AI. For some people, artificial intelligence represents a way to make our lives easier and more efficient. Some creatives are concerned that machines could wind up remixing their work without giving them credit. More concerning, for others, is the fear that artificial intelligence could come with the biases of its human creators and lead to more discriminatory practices against marginalized people.

As privacy concerns grow, brands need to adapt to cookieless marketing strategies. What’s the first thing that pops up as soon as you open a website? A dialog box that says, “Do you wish to accept cookies?”, to which we simply click “Yes” without thinking. The next second, digital minions of the website get to work: they record our online behavior such as how long we stay on the site, the content we access, our location, etc.

Shadyside-based startup AdSkate Inc. has raised $500,000 in a pre-seed funding round that will enable it to double full-time staff by year-end.

A young entrepreneur like Akaash Ramakrishnan, co-founder and COO at AdSkate, an advertising tech startup with ties to CMU that’s presently raising a pre-seed round, the first quarter mix of sectors drawing a wide range of investors is encouraging.

“It shows that Pittsburgh is now on the radar,” Ramakrishnan said. “I think it’s great, being able to garner interest from people not belonging to the local ecosystem and industries are slowly getting more of the limelight to showcase what they’re producing.”

AdSkate, which specializes in the development of cookieless contextual advertising solutions, previously participated in the AlphaLabs accelerator.

The AdSkate founders had the opportunity to sit down with Alpha Labs for a Q&A session.

AdSkate played a vital role in conducting a digital marketing campaign for the city of Pittsburgh.

An article by Alpha Labs on how AdSkate is implementing AI and machine learning principles to improve the digital advertising ecosystem.

Carnegie Mellon University has an accelerator program called VentureBridge. AdSkate was one of the few firms that were selected for the accelerator program.

Carnegie Mellon University has a prestigious startup program called VentureBridge. VentureBridge focuses on helping companies in the artificial intelligence and robotics ecosystem. AdSkate was one of the few companies to have been chosen for the program.

AdSkate was selected to be part of the PGH Labs cohort program. Through the cohort program, AdSkate was able to use its data sets on a YouTube campaign to drive more engaged audiences to the FEC (Financial Economic Center) website.

AdSkate was one of the six Pittsburgh-based startups to be chosen for a cohort program.

AdSkate was selected to be part of Pax Momentum’s cohort program. AdSkate was part of an elite group of startups that were chosen for the fall 2020 accelerator program.