Viant Technology NASDAQ: DSP reported record first-quarter 2026 results and said it expects growth to accelerate through the year, citing strong connected TV demand, new customer ramps, artificial intelligence products and its recently closed acquisition of TVision.
Chief Executive Officer Tim Vanderhook said revenue rose 25% year over year in the quarter, exceeding the high end of the company’s guidance, while contribution ex-TAC increased 18% year over year. Adjusted EBITDA rose 81% to $9.8 million, also above guidance.
“We are off to a strong start in 2026,” Vanderhook said, adding that Viant’s “market position and opportunity for growth have continued to strengthen.” He said growth was broad-based across verticals and was driven by connected TV, increased use of the company’s proprietary data and expanded adoption of the ViantAI product suite.
Connected TV Remains Core Growth Driver
Viant said connected TV accounted for more than 50% of total ad spend on its platform in the first quarter, the company’s highest CTV mix on record. Vanderhook said CTV contribution ex-TAC increased “well over 40%,” marking the third consecutive year that first-quarter CTV contribution ex-TAC grew more than 40% year over year.
Chief Financial Officer Larry Madden said customer-directed purchasing across CTV, streaming audio and digital out-of-home collectively represented more than 60% of total platform spend in the quarter, compared with 54% for full-year 2025. Video, including CTV, represented more than 65% of total platform spend.
Vanderhook said Viant expects to benefit from continued migration of linear TV budgets to CTV and from advertisers shifting some performance budgets away from search and social channels. He also cited expected demand from the 2026 World Cup and U.S. midterm political advertising in the second half of the year.
During the question-and-answer session, Madden said political advertising added about 500 basis points of growth in the third and fourth quarters of the 2024 presidential cycle. For the 2026 midterms, he said the contribution could be lower but still “meaningful.”
Company Highlights Proprietary Data and AI Strategy
Management emphasized Viant’s proprietary data strategy, which Vanderhook described as built around three pillars: content, identity and attention.
The company said its IRIS_ID content identifier, acquired through IRIS.TV, reached nearly 50% penetration across incoming CTV bid requests in the first quarter, up fivefold since the acquisition. Vanderhook said the identifier enables show-level and contextual targeting, including categories, sentiment, tone and brand suitability. He said new streaming services are expected to become IRIS-enabled later this year, which could bring penetration to more than 75% of biddable inventory.
Viant also said its Household ID identity solution is embedded in approximately 80% of all programmatic bid requests and 96% of CTV requests. Vanderhook said 95% of household addresses are mapped to Viant’s ID graph.
The company closed its acquisition of TVision on May 1. Vanderhook said TVision provides attention-related signals including in-room presence, co-viewership, demographics and “eyes on screen” attentive viewership across linear TV, CTV, YouTube and Prime Video. Viant plans to activate that data in the bid stream before ad purchases are made.
“We are the only company currently capable of activating attention as a pre-bid signal for advertisers,” Vanderhook said.
Viant also discussed Outcomes, its autonomous AI-powered advertising product launched in January. Vanderhook said Outcomes requires advertisers to provide four inputs: the advertiser, budget, flight dates and campaign goal. ViantAI then builds, executes, optimizes and reports on campaigns without human intervention, subject to advertiser approval before deployment.
In response to an analyst question, management said adoption remains early but performance results have been encouraging. Vanderhook said the product is aimed at a new performance marketing opportunity rather than simply shifting spending from existing Viant campaigns.
New Customers and Pipeline
Viant said new customers including Molson Coors and WHOOP began deploying spend in the first quarter and are expected to ramp through the year. Vanderhook said the company is working with “the largest sales pipeline in company history.”
Chief Operating Officer Chris Vanderhook said Viant is seeing increased engagement from agencies and advertisers because of its innovation, independence and favorable market dynamics. He said Viant has strong relationships with major agency holding companies, which together account for about one-third of ad spend mix.
In the Q&A session, management said the company is seeing RFP activity across CPG, retail, healthcare and quick-service restaurant categories. Chris Vanderhook said Viant is now being included in major RFPs more frequently than it was three to five years ago.
Asked about the timing of RFP wins, Chris Vanderhook said many current processes are aimed at 2027 budget decisions. “We would expect a lot of these to really begin in the first quarter of ’27,” he said.
Management Positions Viant as Independent Alternative
Chris Vanderhook contrasted Viant’s business model with platforms that also own media inventory, saying Viant does not own publisher content and therefore does not have incentives to steer spend toward its own properties. He criticized walled-garden advertising models and said advertisers are increasingly seeking independent demand-side platform partners.
In response to an analyst question about Amazon, management said Amazon is not typically appearing in final selection rounds for the opportunities Viant is pursuing. Tim Vanderhook added that much of the discussion about Amazon comes from investors rather than advertisers, and said the key distinction is objectivity.
Asked whether Viant has plans to move into exclusive content or proprietary supply, Tim Vanderhook said “plainly no,” stating that the company’s model is built around serving advertisers without content ownership conflicts.
Financial Results and Outlook
For the first quarter, Viant reported:
- Revenue of $88.5 million, up 25% year over year.
- Contribution ex-TAC of $50.3 million, up 18% year over year.
- Adjusted EBITDA of $9.8 million, up 81% year over year.
- Non-GAAP net income of $5.6 million, compared with $2.8 million a year earlier.
- Non-GAAP basic earnings per Class A share of $0.09, up from $0.04.
Madden said Viant ended the quarter with $185.7 million in cash and cash equivalents, $220.1 million in positive working capital, no debt and access to a $75 million undrawn credit facility. The company used $1 million for share repurchases during the quarter and said $39.4 million remained under its current authorization as of May 8.
For the second quarter of 2026, Viant guided for revenue of $98.5 million to $101.5 million, representing 28% year-over-year growth at the midpoint. The company expects contribution ex-TAC of $58.5 million to $60.5 million, adjusted EBITDA of $13 million to $14 million and non-GAAP operating expenses of $45.5 million to $46.5 million. The outlook includes a partial-quarter contribution from TVision following the May 1 close.
Madden said Viant expects contribution ex-TAC growth to accelerate sequentially through 2026, driven by new client onboarding, organic growth, political advertising in the second half and TVision. He said the company continues to target at least 20% annual top-line growth and adjusted EBITDA margin expansion, with a longer-term opportunity to reach adjusted EBITDA margins of 40% or higher.
About Viant Technology NASDAQ: DSP
Viant Technology Inc Nasdaq: DSP is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) advertising technology company that delivers data-driven solutions to marketers and agencies. Its core offering, Adelphic, is a programmatic demand-side platform (DSP) that empowers clients to plan, execute and optimize digital ad campaigns across desktop, mobile, connected TV and other emerging channels.
Complementing its DSP, Viant offers PeopleCloud, a people-based data management platform (DMP) that aggregates and normalizes first- and third-party audience data.
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