Australia’s martech landscape may be on the brink of a huge structural reset, with a pair of the industry’s top adtech leaders launching a new platform designed to change how media decisions are made.
In an exclusive interview with B&T, adtech veterans Kevin Wong and Alex Littlejohn have revealed the launch of Symphonics AI, an Australian-founded company taking aim at what it calls one of the industry’s most persistent (and quietly accepted) inefficiencies: fragmentation.
At the centre of the launch is Syntria, an orchestration platform built to sit above existing media buying systems. As Littlejohn explained to B&T, its ambition is not to replace them, but to control them.
The ‘fragmentation tax’ no one wants to admit
For years, the martech ecosystem has promised seamless orchestration across channels. But in reality, brands and agencies still operate across disconnected platforms – each with its own data, logic and incentives.
Littlejohn described this to B&T as the industry’s “inconvenient truth”.
“Different vendors, platforms, publishers and agencies are all operating in silos,” he said. “They’re incredibly efficient at buying and selling ads, but they don’t talk to each other very well.”
The result is what Symphonics describes as a “fragmentation tax” – wasted budget, inconsistent targeting and limited visibility into how decisions are actually made.
“If we’re relying on those execution layers for holistic decisioning, brands are particularly exposed to wasted budgets,” Littlejohn added.
This is the problem Symphonics is built to solve, not by competing with platforms like DSPs or walled gardens, but by sitting above them.
A new layer in the martech stack
Rather than calling time on the existing stack, Symphonics is betting on a shift in where value is created.
Its platform establishes what it calls a ‘Single Unified Audience Logic’ – a consistent definition of audience eligibility that can be applied across channels including premium open web, connected TV, YouTube and Meta.
In practical terms, Syntria can take a single input (eg: a prompt, research file or media brief) and convert it into activation-ready outputs in under 25 seconds, analysing millions of signals across thousands of domains, channels and audience segments.
But according to Littlejohn, the real play is structural. “The execution layers are the plumbing,” he said. “We’re solving the decisioning – which routes those investments take from plan through to placement.”
Challenging where power sits in martech
The launch comes as AI rapidly accelerates automation across the media supply chain, particularly within major platforms.
While efficiency has improved, transparency – and control – has taken a hit.
“Optimisation is now largely a black box,” said Littlejohn. “Efficiency has improved, but strategic control has narrowed.”
Symphonics positions itself as a counterbalance, giving brands a way to define audience logic independently of platform algorithms — and directly challenging how value is captured across the ecosystem.
“Yes, we are challenging how value is captured across the supply chain,” Littlejohn said. “But this isn’t a new problem — it’s just getting worse.”
As AI investment ramps up, he argues issues like algorithmic bias – where platforms favour their own inventory — will only intensify.
Built from within the industry
A key part of Symphonics’ pitch is its founders’ pedigree.
Wong and Littlejohn bring nearly five decades of combined experience across PwC, TikTok, Dentsu, Channel Factory and SQREEM.
Wong has led programmatic supply chain governance and AI-driven media systems, while Littlejohn has spent 26+ years scaling global adtech businesses, opening 18 offices and managing P&Ls exceeding US$140 million.
That experience, they argue, sets Symphonics apart from a wave of AI-first entrants.
“We’re not an AI company coming in and saying we’ll AI your media business,” Littlejohn said. “We’ve built an AI application for media from the ground up.”
What this means for Australia
While Symphonics has global ambitions, its Australian debut is significant for the local martech landscape.
According to Littlejohn, it signals a shift towards a more independent, AI-native approach to media strategy.
“This introduces a globally scalable, independent, Australian-owned AI platform that allows brands to maintain ownership of their first-party data and improve decisioning,” he said.
More broadly, it reflects a shift in where competitive advantage sits.
“As optimisation becomes commoditised, the advantage shifts to how audience logic is defined and governed,” Wong said.
He added that while platforms have mastered optimisation, the real issue lies earlier in the process.
“Every major platform can optimise faster and more efficiently than any trader, but the definition of what qualifies to be optimised is still fragmented.”
Symphonics AI has launched after a period of quietly building momentum with select agencies and brands behind the scenes.
