Ad Operations Orchestration Startup Secures Backing Led by Both New and Existing Investors, Tribeca Venture Partners and Ardent Venture Partners, in Oversubscribed Round
PilotDesk, a no-code AI workflow automation platform for advertising operations and account management, today announced it has raised $5.8 million in Series A funding led by Tribeca Venture Partners and Ardent Venture Partners. The raise comes one year after the company's seed round and coincides with its rebrand from PilotDesk to Swivel.
"We started with a simple goal: eliminate repetitive work in ad operations," said Joseph Hirsch, CEO, Swivel. "In just over a year, we've helped major CTV and adtech players boost efficiency and performance for their clients. Our rebrand to Swivel signals the next chapter — building more intelligent systems that prevent the need for staff to 'swivel-chair' between multiple ad platforms and enable powerful automation in revenue operations at scale. We're here to free up teams to focus on the work that actually moves the needle."
The oversubscribed round includes new investors Tribeca Venture Partners and Motley Fool Ventures, alongside existing investors Ardent Venture Partners, Roster Capital, and AperiamVentures, all of whom increased their commitment.
"We're backing a team that understands both the pain and the potential in ad operations," said Chip Meakem, Co-Founder & Managing Partner, Tribeca Venture Partners. "Swivel is solving a clear problem with clear ROI, and they're doing it in a way that doesn't require ripping and replacing what's already there. That's a powerful combination."
"We invest in companies that become long-term platforms, not just short-term tools," said Phil Herget, Co-Founder and General Partner, Ardent Venture Partners. "Swivel has the right product, the right team, and the traction to scale. We're impressed with what they've done in a year since our seed investment, and we know they're just getting started."
The funding will support team growth and accelerate product development, including deeper AI-driven orchestration, unified analytics, and seamless integrations with ad servers, demand-side platforms (DSPs), supply-side platforms (SSPs), order management system (OMS) platforms, and more.
Swivel's automation engine is already delivering measurable results. In a deployment with LG Ad Solutions, the platform performed over half a million automated actions, equating to an impressive 25,000 hours of manual ad operations productivity time created, and transitioned from a pilot to a long-term partnership.
"This team has always had a nose for real pain points in adtech – that is because they have created some of the most successful companies in adtech – and they've built for scale from day one," said Mike Shehan, Board Member and Co-Founder of Roster Capital. "Swivel is where the industry is heading — not theoretical, not five years out — right now."
The rebrand marks the next phase of the company's evolution while staying grounded in its mission: to remove operational friction and help revenue teams move faster, with fewer resources.
Swivel was co-founded by Joe Hirsch, Matt Dearborn, and Rich Lin, the team behind SpringServe, the leading video ad server acquired by Magnite in 2021. They're joined by President Frans Vermeulen, a veteran of TransUnion, TruOptik, and FreeWheel, and CTO Geir Magnusson Jr., formerly of AppNexus, fuboTV, and SourcePoint. Together, they bring a rare mix of deep adtech experience and technical leadership, building automation tools grounded in real operational pain points — and proven at scale.
To learn more about Swivel please visit https://www.swivel.ai.
Swivel provides no-code automation, AI, and machine learning, to support ad operations — enabling teams to focus on strategy, growth, and performance as opposed to repetitive tasks. As revenue and media spend increase across the ecosystem, the operational burden has historically scaled with it. Swivel's vision is to break that pattern. The platform drives improved yield for sellers and greater media efficiency for buyers, without increasing headcount or complexity.
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