Samba TV cranks up the volume with $30m boost and a data-power pact with Omnicom

MUMBAI: Samba TV has decided 2025 won’t be a quiet year. The AI-driven media-intelligence outfit has secured an initial $30m from Horizon Technology Finance — with another $30m waiting in the wings — giving it the financial firepower to turbocharge its agentic-AI dreams, scale globally and snap up more tech firms along the way.

The cash infusion, from Horizon (an affiliate of Monroe Capital), arms Samba with the muscle to push its next-gen advertising stack into the mainstream, accelerate its global operations and deepen partnerships with DSPs, SSPs and heavyweights such as TikTok and Snap. For a firm preaching the gospel of unified, real-time AI advertising, the chequebook now matches the sermon.

Ashwin Navin, chief executive and co-founder, didn’t mince words: “The traditional advertising playbook is obsolete,” he said, arguing that Samba’s agentic AI “optimises every screen” and that the new capital gives it the “strategic flexibility and firepower” to execute aggressively — on products, partnerships and opportunistic M&A. Horizon, he added, was chosen for its grip on the tech landscape and its flair for non-dilutive financing.

But Samba didn’t stop at money. In a move set to shake India’s ad market, the company has inked a strategic research-and-development pact with Omnicom Media. The alliance bolts Samba’s deep ACR-powered Smart TV data into Omnicom’s planning, measurement and activation machine, aiming to crack India’s growing premiumisation puzzle.

Field trials are already running with top-tier advertisers, lured by the promise of granular cross-platform insights, performance optimisation and a level of transparency Indian media buyers have long craved. Samba’s data, pulled from millions of connected TVs, hands Omnicom clients a microscopic look at audience behaviour, campaign effectiveness and media waste.

Welded together with Omnicom’s Omni platform, the partnership is pitching itself as the new gold standard for data-led advertising in one of the world’s fastest-growing markets.

With fresh capital in one hand and a heavyweight alliance in the other, Samba TV seems to be dancing to a faster beat — and if its bets pay off, India’s media landscape may soon find itself trying to keep up with the rhythm.