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(Alliance News) - Shares in real-time game advertising firm Bidstack Group PLC fell Monday after its loss deepened significantly, despite reporting maiden revenue, as it continues to progress platform growth ahead of targeted profitability in 2021.
Shares in Bidstack were 7.0% lower at 21.86 pence in London on Monday.
For the six months ended June, pretax loss deepened to GBP1.8 million from GBP411,070 a year prior. This was despite reporting its first modest revenue of GBP26,692 during the interim period.
"Our challenge for 2019 was to prove to advertising agencies and brands that our in-game advertising inventory could be traded programmatically, which we have now done," Bidstack Chief Executive Officer James Draper said.
"For the first half of the year we've not focused on revenue," Draper added. "Instead, we've focused on building out our offering to a level where significant advertising revenues can be run through our platform. The revenue in the first half were test campaigns to ensure all signals coming back from our technology were going to enable us to deal with major advertising agencies."
"I believe our patience and methodology have paid off and our team has captured the imagination of advertisers across the world," Draper continued. "The fruits of their labour have become visible with our first strategic partnership agreement with a major agency holding group, Dentsu Aegis Network."
"I expect this will now speed up a number of other elements to the business, including further game acquisition and the adoption of industry wide definitions for this new ad format," Draper said. "These developments will open the door to significant real advertising spend.
"The Bidstack team has undertaken an incredible amount of work in 2019 so far and I couldn't be more excited about where the company is going," Draper continued. "The fourth quarter is all about execution on our previous work."
Looking ahead, Bidstack said it expects 2019 revenue expectations from the market to be "achievable" and for revenue to grow "significantly" in 2020 with the aim of profitability in 2021.
By Ahren Lester; ahrenlester@alliancenews.com
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