Global ad technology company MediaMath has acquired Rare Crowds, a technology company building solutions to find marketer-defined target audiences across display, mobile, video and social.

Rare Crowds’ open source technology, OpenAdStack, uses combinatorial optimisation techniques and machine learning algorithms to find targeted media that is as close as possible to a perfect match against a marketer’s campaign goals and desired audiences. Integrated into MediaMath’s marketing operating system TerminalOne, Rare Crowds’ technology will enable marketers to reach their target audiences with greater accuracy and efficiency.

As part of the acquisition, Rare Crowds’ CEO and co-founder Eric Picard joins the MediaMath team as vice president of strategic partnerships. Picard brings nearly 20 years of experience as a product and strategy leader within the digital advertising arena, having held C-level and senior management roles at TRAFFIQ, Microsoft, and BlueStreak.

“I have been following MediaMath’s success since the company’s earliest days,” said Picard. “I couldn’t be more excited to join a market-leading company on the edge of innovation, whose commitment to delivering marketer outcomes is one I share. I look forward to helping drive the company’s growth as we look to bring the benefits of programmatic marketing into new parts of the ecosystem.”

Mike Lamb, chief commercial officer of MediaMath added:”We’re especially excited to have Eric leading our efforts to extend programmatic to address the full media plan. We think there’s a huge opportunity for new technology to transform media planning and buying. The combination of Eric’s experience and leadership with Rare Crowds technology brings us two steps closer to delivering game-changing new capabilities for our clients. We are thrilled to have Eric on board.”