RE10TION was not a typical Berlin summer party. It was our 10th anniversary and a special occasion that brought together the amazing people who have been part of our success story over the last decade. Our investors, partners, clients, and colleagues — both current and former — made this evening at one of Berlin's most scenic riverfront venues, Holzmarkt, a memorable one. Seeing so many familiar and new faces made us look back at our origins, a story that began over a decade ago.
How it all began
It was Berlin in the late 2000s, when the launch of the iPhone opened an entirely new tech industry: mobile advertising. Two of our co-founders, Pan and Martin, made their start at one of the first mobile ad networks in Europe. Within a few years of rapid growth, the cracks were starting to show — the misaligned company culture, a pressured work atmosphere, and unrealistic expectations made them rethink their careers.
On top of that, Pan decided to do some soul-searching and headed to California where he focused his energy towards developing a new business idea. Starting with a list of about 100 ideas, he picked a model closer to generating revenue and one that isn't overly reliant on external investors.
The product was an app retargeting platform — which in 2014 was set to be the next big thing in the mobile world. At this point, there were already over 2 million apps in the marketplace. However, brands were mainly focused on acquiring new users, with little importance given to maintaining existing ones. Pan saw this period as the perfect opportunity to launch a product that would nurture loyalty among users by 'speaking' to them via personalized ads inside the apps on their devices. Martin helped refine the product concept and soon enough, the idea caught on with app marketers in California.
With Martin on board, Pan went on to assemble his co-founding team. He roped in Ben who's an amazing sales lead, Bene for his tech infrastructure skills, and Christian for his excellent understanding of company operations. Still in California, Pan registered the business at the German consulate in Los Angeles, while the rest of the team got together in Berlin. Aside from their confidence in the product, the co-founders aligned on a purpose: to build a tech-driven company that matters in a fast-growing industry, together with humble and smart people, where it is an enjoyable and sustainable place to work.
Pitching the first SDK-less app retargeting platform
Raising the seed round was nothing short of a potential Hollywood movie plot: there was no end product to show, no proof of concept, nor a fancy presentation. Just a 2-page PDF describing the idea, the market, the competition, the team, and the investment terms. The target was to raise just €250k, but the demand was so high that Remerge was offered €1.5M of funding. To remain focused, Pan capped the funding amount and selected only the investors who strongly believed in Remerge's vision.
The proposal? An SDK-less dynamic app retargeting platform — a first in the industry. The co-founders positioned the company as a programmatic demand-side platform (DSP) with unmatched scale and cost-efficiency.
The aim was to take app retargeting to the next level by inventing dynamic audience segmentation with the help of attribution providers. This means that the users being retargeted through in-app ads are grouped into segments that are based on their behaviors and interactions within the app, according to the data streamed from attribution providers (also known as Mobile Measurement Partners or MMPs). These user segments can be created based on 'events', like where the user has clicked, what's on their wishlist, and what they've purchased. At the time our co-founders thought of this idea, such data streams did not exist. Today, this approach is an industry standard and has been emulated by several of our competitors.
Within the same year of our founding, we were included in the Top 20 Startup list at Slush, one of the world's leading startup events. We became profitable by the second year and expanded our footprint by opening offices in New York, Singapore, Seoul, and Tokyo. In 2018, we made it to LinkedIn's list of Top Startups in Germany. Our consistent performance in retargeting has landed us on AppsFlyer's Performance Index every year, often ranked right after tech giants and self-attributing networks.
Fast forward to 2024: We survived the Covid-19 pandemic thanks to our work infrastructure that was designed as a remote-first setup. The privacy changes introduced by Apple in their iOS 14 update didn't slow our momentum as we were already developing a post-ID product in 2019. On top of that, we've been closely working with the developers at Google to shape the Android Privacy Sandbox, engaging in public dialogues with our partners, and speaking at events to keep the industry updated. With so much happening on this matter, we've created our very own newsroom, dedicated to all things privacy-related.
A night to remember
Back at the party, it was time for our co-founders to go on stage to address a sea of over 200 people, with each of them taking turns to show their gratitude towards those who have supported the Remerge project. Our COO Christian's speech was particularly touching. There were few dry eyes in the audience as he thanked his wife Nina — his friend, coach, mentor, and sponsor (and if there were a prize for the best-dressed couple, the pair would have taken the crown for their Woodstock-inspired costumes).
As the sun went down, the volume went up on the dance floor. Our resident DJs/software engineers Aggy and Martin kept us dancing into the night. With the open bar serving bottomless drinks, it was all the more reason for us to stay longer to have more conversations with the people that we usually see on screen.
Where to next
To be ten years in business is no small feat, considering that the mobile industry is one that never stops evolving. Making history requires forward thinking, which is why we're doubling down on our efforts to improve our products, especially on the user acquisition side. You'll be reading more about our innovations on the privacy topic as our team members continue to collaborate with more partners and engage in discussions at conferences worldwide. Come say hi to us the next time we're in your city — we're always posting updates on our LinkedIn page.
On that note, we'd like to end this post with something sweet that Pan said during his speech at the anniversary party:
"I asked the co-founders if they wanted to do this for a couple more years. They all said that they want to be with Remerge for the rest of their lives because it's the best thing to happen to them. To be working with such amazing people, learning from one another, and doing great things together."
Thank you again to those who never stopped believing in us since day one. It is an honor to be working alongside some of the best talents in app marketing. Let's keep it going!
