Certain information contained within this Announcement is deemed by the Company to constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No. 596/2014 ("MAR") as applied in the United Kingdom. Upon publication of this Announcement, this information is now considered to be in the public domain.

29 December 2022

Bidstack Group Plc

("Bidstack" or the "Company" or the "Group")

Board Changes

Bidstack Group Plc (AIM: BIDS), the in-game brand activation platform, announces that Francesco Petruzzelli has informed the Board of his intention to resign from his position as Managing Director and to resign from the Board.

Francesco will continue to be involved with the Company as a Strategic Adviser to the executive team.

The Board would like to place on record the enormous contribution that Francesco has played in building out Bidstack, the in-game advertising sector as a whole and for his work across the technical and commercial areas of the business to date. We wish him well in his future endeavours.

The Board is pleased to announce the appointment to the Board of Doug Lowther as a Non-executive Director, and Camila Franklin (currently Chief Operating Officer) as an Executive Director. 

Doug currently serves as CEO of Irdeto B.V., widely regarded as the world leader in digital platform cybersecurity, since April 2015. Irdeto is a 13.5% shareholder in the Company following its £5m strategic investment, as announced on 5 October 2022. Previously Doug was the President and CEO of International Datacasting and, prior to that, he served in various senior and executive roles within Irdeto based in Beijing and Amsterdam between 2004 and 2013.

Camila has over 20 years of gaming and ad-tech experience. She has led engineering, product, operations and client facing teams.  Camila was also named one of The Top Women Leaders in SaaS in 2020 and was a Bronze Stevie Award winner for Woman of the Year in the business services industry in 2021. Prior to joining Bidstack, Camila served in various executive roles, including as COO, within AdColony between 2015 and 2022. Previously she has held senior roles within the US at Navio Systems, Tira Wireless, Device Anywhere, Antenna Software and Moovweb.

Further information on each of Camila Franklin and Doug Lowther is set out below.

James Draper, CEO of Bidstack, said

"Francesco and I have been on this journey for many years, building Bidstack initially from a concept that turned into one of the first Digital Out of Home (DOOH) programmatic platforms, to our pivot in 2017 when the Company began the rebirth of in-game advertising. Where the Company sits today is testament to some truly world class individual contributions of his, and the exceptional team we've formed together here at Bidstack.

"I'm delighted he's going to continue his engagement through being a Strategic Adviser to the team and we will undoubtedly collaborate on a number of projects the Company is working on currently, to cement the strong foundations of the media, sports and licensing divisions the business has built out. Francesco has been a great friend through this journey from start-up to scale-up, from Crowdcube to RTO and beyond.  The business has never been in a better shape and we can both look back at what we've built here with enormous pride.

"Following the strategic investment from Irdeto, I am pleased to welcome Doug to the Board.  Irdeto has deep relationships with global publishers and is a market leader in digital platform cybersecurity.  The Board will value Doug's expertise in our industry.  In addition, I'm personally looking forward to the mentorship of an experienced and successful CEO.

"Camila will step up to the main Board. Her professionalism and operational talents have made an immediate impact to the business, as we focus on delivering revenues through our media and technology offerings, at scale, globally. Her proven track record of leading a company to a $400 million exit, is something our team is keen and excited to learn from.

"With our pipeline of revenue for Q1 looking stronger than ever, we look forward to updating shareholders further on progress, when appropriate.''

Further information on Camila Franklin and Doug Lowther

Camila Maria Chamberlain Franklin (aged 42) is not currently and has not been a director of any company in the last five years.

Camila Franklin is currently the holder of 13,965,000 LTIP awards exercisable at nominal value.

There is no further information on Camila Franklin required to be disclosed under Schedule Two, paragraph (g) (i)-(viii) of the AIM Rules for Companies.

Douglas William Herbert Lowther (aged 57) holds or has held the following directorships in the past five years: