UZE Mobility Acquires TAXi-AD;
Corners German Market as it Expands Mobile Digital Out-of-Home Advertising in Europe and the United States
Gains exclusivity to mobile display ads in Germany as company strengthens its fast global growth position and amplifies advertisers’ reach
through hardware, software, AI and sensor technology
Bremen, Germany and NYC — UZE Mobility, the marketplace platform for mobile digital out-of-home (MDOOH) advertising, announced today that it has acquired TAXi-AD to become the sole provider of self-lighting top-of-taxi advertising in Germany and scale its team and reach for global advertisers.
Together, UZE and Taxi-AD have 27,000 displays on the marketplace. They will put an additional 4,000 displays on taxis and commercial vehicles on German city streets to target the 4 million people on-the-go they pass every hour whether walking, driving, bicycling or using public transportation. The acquisition gives UZE control over a combined 91% of the German mobility digital out-of-home market and the exclusive rights to operate taxi-top displays in Germany. This secures UZE’s scale in Europe while serving as a springboard for continued expansion into the U.S.
“TAXi-AD is a proven and highly competitive player in Europe’s advertising ecosystem. Their two-decade track record in building sophisticated display hardware, that is digital and data-driven, provides a powerful catalyst to further fuel our global growth and software scale,” said Alexander Jablovski, co-founder and global CEO of UZE. “The alignment between both companies is also remarkable. With both businesses founded in Germany’s heritage of driving mobility innovation backed by a growing network of customers and offices, the combined forces of UZE’s software expertise with TAXi-AD’s sensor technology will drive the future of mobile digital out-of-home advertising.”
For TAXi-AD, UZE brings in-house display technology, a programmatic marketplace solution, and the ability to scale their display network farther and faster than ever before. For UZE, TAXi-AD’s customer portfolio brings 8,000 total advertisers on the platform. TAXi-AD will also provide an additional 300 proprietary screens, a new market segment (taxi-advertising), and a new category of display sizes.
“Acquiring TAXi-AD helps UZE round out the broad set of platforms where we place ads—delivery vehicles, e-bikes, stationary displays, and now taxis,” said Cindy Jeffers, President and COO of UZE US, headquartered in New York City. “As I look at the city’s ubiquitous presence of yellow cabs, I see entire streets lit up with UZE hardware displays providing better, more intelligent targeting while offsetting costs for cab drivers by bringing more revenue opportunity to the taxi industry as it emerges from the pandemic.”
“We had the existing licenses and customer-base to significantly expand our footprint, and needed the software and infrastructure to scale. That’s where UZE comes in,” said Falk Röbbelen, Managing Director at TAXi-AD. “As the only company in Europe to own every link in the value chain—from the hardware displays through to every aspect of the campaign management software—UZE allows us to leverage a valuable ecosystem that DOOH companies simply cannot do on their own.”
The acquisition brings significant benefits to European advertisers and, by extension, those American companies who enter into UZE’s valuable ecosystem. By connecting UZE’s displays to its marketplace and environmental and anonymized data, UZE owns the entire value chain. This creates a flexible and responsive system that allows advertisers to personalize and target ads in real-time across a range of real estate—not just on taxis but every screen connected to UZE’s marketplace through commercial fleet vehicles, advertisers, insurers and governments.
“With TAXi-AD, we were able to reach a whole new segment of customers. Their integration into UZE’s software system scales this reach by digitizing access to a robust value chain that, until today, was incredibly time consuming and costly to connect into,” said Adele Martens at Century21 Schmittmann & Kollegen Real Estate and early UZE client. “The acquisition of TAXi-AD streamlines our entire process for digital out-of-home advertising to cut through what used to be a horribly fragmented process of buying, managing and deploying ads.
“The awa7 card launch campaign centered around our commitment to plant one tree for every 100 euros spent. This meant targeting customers who were passionate about the environment, more likely to be outdoors and reached through OOH, all during a nation-wide lockdown,” said Jan Philip Ziebold, founder of awa7®️ Visa Card. “Thanks to UZE’s incredibly precise targeting technology that connected us to a vast network of display venues, we drove a record amount of new sign-ups and planted 45,000 trees in the first month. We surpassed our goal while driving more confidence in our ability to reach customers no matter where they are and no matter the circumstances.”
The acquisition comes during an explosive growth period for UZE and its advertisers to reach a digital display market that is expected to grow to $121 billion in the next five years. As UZE expands both its display technology and advertising platform into the U.S., which made its market debut in November 2020 to serve the New York City Tri-State area, they expect to surpass those numbers quickly.
ABOUT UZE MOBILITY
UZE Mobility is the premier platform for mobile digital out-of-home advertising. The company delivers bespoke ad campaigns through proprietary digital billboards mounted on commercial vehicles and is powered by their AI-driven campaign management software. Visit uze-mobility.com.
ABOUT TAXI-AD
Thanks to their pan-European network, TAXi-AD is Europe’s leading taxi advertiser. Their vast experience in taxi-based ads has positioned TAXi-AD a spot at the head of the pack in mobile display advertising. TAXi-Ad’s mission is to standardize advertising media and provide a one-stop-shop for its partners and clients. To learn more, visit www.taxi-ad.net.
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