Ad Tech Company Intent Media Shuts Down After Decade-Long Run

Intent Media, which served up competitors’ advertising on online travel agency websites and attracted $50 million in venture capital funding, shut operations last week, Skift has learned.

Founded by Site59 veterans Richard Harris, Damon Tassone and Josh Feuerstein, Intent would serve up Priceline or Expedia ads on LastMinute.com, for example, when Intent’s machine learning technology predicted the site visitor was unlikely to buy. The goal was added revenue for the online travel agency publisher, and potentially incremental business for the advertiser. Intent also worked with airlines, showing advertising from their rivals.

Contacted by Skift Friday, founder and CEO Richard Harris said Intent’s bank stepped in over the last couple of weeks and forced a restructuring. Intent Media informed partners over the last week or so and ceased operations, with the bank taking control of the assets, Harris said.

But Harris said he’s part of an investor group that purchased the machine learning portion of the business, which was small compared to the travel media business, from the bank. He is the CEO of the new business, Black Crow Ai, which has about 20 employees, mostly in headquarter city New York.

On this bottom of this 2014 Orbitz screenshot, Intent Media placed ads with hotel prices from competitors, including Priceline, Hotels.com, Travelocity, and Orbitz sister site CheapTickets.

Founded in 2009, Intent Media, which had offices in New York City, London and Kuala Lumpur, raised about $50.7 million from Insight Partners, Redpoint, and Matrix Partners. Harris said the bank, which he declined to identify, took control of the company’s assets, with the investors losing out.

New York City Worker Adjust and Retraining Notices show that Intent permanently or temporarily laid off about 70 employees since April, including 26 that took place in October in connection with the restructuring.

“It’s crushing for me since I spent a decade working on this,” Harris said, adding that February, before Covid struck, was the company’s best month.

Harris said around 20 people work for Black Crow Ai, which uses its predictive technology for retail brands, mostly outside of travel, when they advertise on Google, for example.

Black Crow will be trying to do a Series A funding round, Harris said, and the bank is engaging in talks to sell Intent Media’s assets to competing advertising networks.