GTCR, a leading private equity firm, today announced that it has entered into a partnership with Scott Knoll, David Hahn and Michael Iantosca to form Dreamscape, Inc. (“Dreamscape”). The new company, headquartered in Salt Lake City, UT, will focus on acquiring companies and assets as part of a strategy to build a leading marketing technology business. GTCR, the firm that pioneered The Leaders Strategy™ — finding and partnering with management leaders in core domains to identify, acquire and build market-leading companies through transformational acquisitions and organic growth — will invest in Dreamscape through its $5.25 billion Fund XII alongside substantial investments from Messrs. Knoll, Hahn and Iantosca.
“We are excited to partner with Scott, David and Michael to build a leading marketing technology company as part of The Leaders Strategy™,” said GTCR Managing Director, Craig Bondy. “The team has an exceptional track record in the sector, including the experience of working together to build Integral Ad Science from a small player in a nascent industry into a leading ad measurement, viewability and fraud platform. Their collective industry, product and go-to-market expertise make them ideal partners as GTCR commits to build another platform in the attractive and dynamic marketing technology industry.”
Messrs. Knoll, Hahn and Iantosca are 20+ year veterans of the technology, marketing and advertising industries. They worked together from 2012 to 2019, most recently as Chief Executive Officer, Chief Strategy Officer and Chief Revenue Officer, respectively, at Integral Ad Science (“IAS”), a leading marketing technology business that measures media quality to verify and optimize the placement of digital ads through its fraud, viewability, brand safety and optimization capabilities. During this time, they grew IAS from a small business to a global leader in the brand safety industry. Along the way, the team created industry-first intellectual property that helped give brands the confidence necessary to invest in programmatic advertising, helping transform the category from a tool to monetize remnant publisher inventory into a preferred method of digital media execution for leading brands worldwide. The team completed a successful sale of IAS in 2018 and then stepped down after a transition period.Fintech News
Prior to joining IAS, Mr. Knoll served as President of Aperture, an audience measurement and targeting platform. Before that, he served as COO of Verified Person, an online pre-employment screening and monitoring tool, and held various senior management, business development and international roles at DoubleClick, a digital marketing business that was acquired by Google for over $3 billion.
“We are thrilled to partner with GTCR to build Dreamscape into an industry-leading marketing technology company,” said Mr. Knoll. “GTCR has deep domain expertise in this industry, a great track record of acquiring and building platforms, and a long history of backing experienced management teams. David, Michael and I look forward to this partnership.”
“GTCR has deep sector expertise in the marketing technology industry,” added Stephen Master, Principal at GTCR. “Drawing on our track record and focus in the sector, we believe there are a number of compelling industry trends that we are excited to explore with Scott, David and Michael. We are actively looking for acquisitions and our partnership provides us a unique position to evaluate and pursue a wide range of assets.”
