Redbrick adds Paved to its growing tech portfolio

Redbrick has acquired Paved, a US-based newsletter advertising platform that connects publishers and advertisers.

With this acquisition, Redbrick, headquartered in Victoria, British Columbia, adds another business to its portfolio of technology-focused companies. This move marks the company's fourth significant acquisition in recent years, contrary to the prevailing trend of Canadian companies acquired by US counterparts.

Marco Pimentel, Chief Marketing Officer at Redbrick, articulated the strategic rationale behind the acquisition: "In a digital landscape dominated by walled gardens, email newsletters are an essential channel for publishers and creators to own their audiences and capture first-party data. Paved is set to transform newsletter advertising with an automated monetisation solution, making email a direct, scalable, and sustainable growth channel beyond feed-driven ecosystems."

Paved operates a premium marketplace that serves as a bridge between advertisers such as Uber, DoorDash, and Salesforce and 253 million newsletter subscribers through more than 3,000 publishers, including The New York Times, NBC, Bloomberg, and TechCrunch. The platform enables publishers to monetise their subscriber base by integrating relevant advertisements seamlessly within emails, providing advertisers access to targeted audiences.

John McLaughlin, CEO and Founder of Paved, expressed enthusiasm about the partnership: "Joining forces with Redbrick represents an incredible opportunity to scale Paved's vision of revolutionising newsletter advertising. With Redbrick's resources and expertise, we're poised to expand our platform's capabilities, empower publishers and advertisers with even greater innovation, and unlock new growth opportunities in the rapidly evolving digital advertising space."

Paved's innovative technology includes patented native ad placement designs for email, creating customised ads that match publishers' content in font, colour, and imagery. The platform also ensures transparency by offering advertisers real-time insights into publisher performance, clicks, and impressions verified by publisher data.

This acquisition aligns with Redbrick's goals as a Certified B Corporation, demonstrating its commitment to sustainable business growth and innovation. The more extensive Redbrick portfolio now includes a range of technology solutions such as Animoto for video creation, Delivra for email and SMS marketing, Duplex for content discovery, Leadpages for sales enablement, and the Shift browser.