Why Pinterest wants to buy tvScientific, and what it signals for the CTV ads business

By Ronan Shields  •  December 16, 2025  •

Ivy Liu

In recent years, a small crop of performance-centric CTV companies — tvScientific’s peer set includes MNTN and Vibe — have emerged in response to make CTV ad-buys more outcome-driven, as opposed to a brand-led offering. Such companies have found quarry, pitching to smaller and mid-sized businesses, whose marketers do not want television as a vague awareness channel; they want proof that spend translates into measurable results which can be closely attributed to purchases.

While large demand-side platforms such as The Trade Desk and Google’s DV360 dominate agency-led, high-budget buying, performance CTV platforms have carved out a niche serving advertisers that value accountability over scale.

Why?

That niche is precisely what makes tvScientific attractive to Pinterest. The social platform runs a self-serve ad business and has spent the past two years repositioning itself as a performance marketing player through automation and AI-driven products such as Performance+. What it has lacked is a credible off-platform video channel that allows advertisers to extend campaigns beyond Pinterest itself without losing measurement.

Mike Brooks, a consultant with extensive experience in CTV, explained his theory of the rationale behind the deal to Digiday, noting that tvScientific bridges a gap in many marketers’ requirements.

“They’re acquiring one of the very few beachheads at the intersection of performance, especially mobile performance, and CTV,” he said. “Instead of spinning up all of the supply relationships and all of the demand relationships and building a performance-specific algorithm, they [Pinterest] just acquired this as an audience extension tool for their performance business versus an audience extension tool for their brand business that they then have to figure out how to turn to performance.”

Meanwhile, Tatari CEO Philip Inghelbrecht, added, “Advertisers will ultimately judge this acquisition on reach and outcomes. Pinterest’s intent data is powerful, yet without full inventory access (i.e., programmatic only, executed via a 3P licensed DSP) brands may still find themselves capped in scale and cost efficiency. As the market evolves, the winners in CTV will be those who pair transparent, full-funnel measurement with truly comprehensive supply access.”

How much?

The financial details of the deal were not publicly disclosed. However, as AdExchanger observed, “Pinterest did reveal that the transaction is subject to regulatory review, suggesting that it is valued at or above the Federal Trade Commission’s reporting threshold of $126.4 million.”

One source, who declined to be named to maintain relationships, estimated the deal valuation was in the range of $300-to-$350 million, with separate sources — who cited conversations with people close to the deal — independently informing Digiday tvScientific was generating approximately $100 million in revenue per annum, net $50 million.

The communications team for tvScientific did not respond to Digiday’s requests for comment on these assertions by press time. Pinterest declined the opportunity.

Founded during the post-pandemic digital boom period by former OpenX C-suite executive Jason Fairchild, tvScientific set out to make CTV function like paid search by bundling ad buying, attribution, and optimization into a single workflow and matching ad exposure to downstream actions.

In 2022, it then raised a $20 million Series A led by Norwest Venture Partners, with NBCUniversal and Hearst Ventures participating, underscoring the industry’s belief that performance-led CTV was viable at scale.

As scrutiny around CTV measurement intensified, tvScientific doubled down. A $9.4 million convertible note in 2024 helped fund product and data science investment, followed by a $25.5 million Series B in early 2025 that brought in Roku and NewRoad Capital Partners.