Kevel vs Activision Blizzard
Side-by-side comparison of AI visibility scores, market position, and capabilities
$23M Series C March 2024 (Fulcrum/Godwin); 3B API requests/day; Edmunds/Klarna/Delivery Hero customers; Retail Media Cloud platform; ad server infrastructure leader
About
Kevel (formerly Adzerk) is an ad infrastructure company founded in 2010 by James Avery to provide API-first ad serving technology that allows digital platforms to build custom, first-party advertising networks rather than relying on third-party ad tech stacks like Google Ad Manager. The company was built on the thesis that publishers, marketplaces, and retail media operators needed programmatic-grade ad serving capabilities they could control, customize, and brand as their own — without the data leakage, opacity, and vendor lock-in associated with dominant ad tech platforms. Kevel's API architecture makes it uniquely suited for companies that need to embed advertising logic directly into their own product infrastructure.\n\nKevel's primary products include its core Ad Server APIs, which process 3 billion+ ad requests per day, and its Retail Media Cloud platform, which enables e-commerce companies and marketplaces to build sponsored product and display advertising businesses on top of their own shopper data. Customers include Edmunds for automotive listings ads, Klarna for commerce media, and Delivery Hero for restaurant and grocery sponsored placements — all examples of companies that needed ad serving infrastructure customized to non-standard inventory formats and audience contexts. The Retail Media Cloud positions Kevel at the center of the fastest-growing segment in digital advertising.\n\nKevel raised a $23 million Series C in March 2024, bringing total funding to approximately $42 million, to accelerate its retail media platform and expand its enterprise sales motion. The company has benefited significantly from the retail media wave — as Amazon's advertising business demonstrated the economics of first-party commerce data monetization, every major retailer and marketplace has sought to build comparable capabilities. Kevel's white-label approach allows these companies to move faster than building proprietary ad tech from scratch while maintaining full data ownership and control.
Microsoft-acquired ($68.7B, 2023) gaming publisher of Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, and Candy Crush; integrated into Xbox Game Pass competing with Sony PlayStation for gaming ecosystem dominance.
About
Activision Blizzard is one of the world's largest video game publishers — producing blockbuster franchises including Call of Duty (the top-grossing franchise in gaming history), World of Warcraft (the defining MMORPG), Overwatch (team shooter), Diablo, Hearthstone, and Candy Crush (via the King mobile games division) across console, PC, and mobile platforms. Microsoft completed its acquisition of Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion in October 2023 (the largest gaming acquisition in history), bringing these properties under Xbox Game Studios and Microsoft's gaming portfolio alongside Bethesda and other studios.
AI Visibility Head-to-Head
Key Details
Capabilities & Ecosystem
Capabilities
Also Compare
Track AI Visibility in Real Time
Monitor how your brand performs across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, and Grok daily.