MarTech360 Interview with David Mandeno, co-founder and COO at Revving

From a UX perspective, they are constantly having to evolve products using all of these data points, but we soon realised, despite having access to all this data, extended payment terms meant they were having to invest large sums in user acquisition before they were paid from in-app advertising or purchases.

Hi David. Can you tell us a little about your journey into Revving and what problem you’re trying to solve?

I originally studied engineering in New Zealand before joining Unilever Australia as a graduate. I then worked as a management consultant, first in Sydney and then in London, before pivoting into corporate finance where I worked for a large media investment firm. This is where I met my Revving co-founder Chris Pettit. 

We worked on a range of media investment initiatives, including how we could provide funding to mobile game developers to help them grow their businesses through user acquisition. Mobile gaming is a complicated ecosystem with massive amounts of highly granular data available in real time to help developers optimise their game. From a UX perspective, they are constantly having to evolve products using all of these data points, but we soon realised, despite having access to all this data, extended payment terms meant they were having to invest large sums in user acquisition before they were paid from in-app advertising or purchases. 

We also realised that this problem was endemic across a range of digital ecosystems including programmatic advertising, affiliate marketing and digital music streaming, and that there was a real opportunity to combine both the technology element and the data element of these digital ecosystems, using our backgrounds in finance, to help smaller businesses access funding. 

We dedicated the next few years to building the technology needed to be able to deliver our solution, and onboarded our first clients in December 2023. The number of customers we serve has been growing non-stop since then.

What’s your day-to-day role at Revving?

As the business has evolved, so has my role. But as an engineer, I’m focused on the product side – the technical and data elements behind our platform, ensuring that we can adapt our commercial proposition to support new customers from different segments or with different needs. I also oversee the operations side of the business, making sure we continue to support the ongoing funding needs of our clients. 

How does the platform work, and how specifically are you improving the digital advertising industry? 

For too long, the industry has normalised payment processes which perpetuate inequality between different players in the adtech and martech supply chain. It is not uncommon to see payment terms which require raising an invoice and then waiting up to 90 or 120 days to be paid. The three core challenges we see are funding availability, funding predictability, and supply chain transparency. 

And so right now, if you’re a publisher monetising via impression sales for instance, 1) you’re waiting a long time to be paid, 2) depending on your demand partners, there can be a severe lack of predictability, and 3) there is also opacity in terms of suppliers further upstream upon whom your direct payors are relying. 

We’re trying to solve these problems by providing a robust and transparent credit process where we assess upstream payors, and give our customers full visibility in terms of the payment risk in their digital supply chains. Meanwhile, we are also solving the funding challenge, because we are collapsing those payment terms and unlocking funding from working capital, while minimising the uncertainty around cash flows, because we’re paying on a regular basis, in a predictable way.

Imagine a ‘David and Goliath’ scenario, in which Revving as a payment intermediary gives power to the smaller clients, such as publishers at the bottom of the programmatic supply chain. Our technology captures granular, real-time transaction data from digital ecosystems and uses it to unlock instant payments.

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What benefits are your clients seeing from their partnership with Revving?

Aside from providing funding to support operating cashflows, through us, our clients’ finance teams have consolidated tools for monitoring, analysing and managing cash flow – the platform is a source of centralised reporting, reflecting all their debtors. Knowing when they will get their money, and that they will not have long to wait, allows them to plan their finances and become more strategic, for instance, enabling our publisher and affiliate companies to reinvest and supercharge their own growth trajectories.  

What does the future hold for Revving and the industry?

We recently secured a landmark investment of £107 million – £7 million equity and £100 million debt financing – and are in a better position than ever to support more clients across the adtech and martech ecosystem. We are building some exciting new partnerships with public affiliate networks, SSPs and global payment processors, and expect to have news to share on that very soon. 

We are also developing a funding calculator for our website, which will enable potential customers to instantly check their eligibility for funding, and to access a demo of the platform to understand what it can do for them. In short, it’s a period of immense growth for us – and in turn for our existing and potential clients – as we strive to make unfair extended payments a thing of the past. 

Thanks David!