My big idea: eco-friendly ad platform Greenbids

‍What's your elevator pitch?

Greenbids cuts waste from digital advertising, saving CMOs a lot of money in the process. We’ve built a technology that not only enhances ad performance by removing redundancies from the supply chain but also significantly reduces the carbon emissions of media buying.

Our core mission is to optimise ad spend while minimising emissions, aligning efficiency and environmental impact so that there are clear financial incentives for more sustainable practices. By streamlining programmatic advertising, we’re answering the industry’s call for supply path optimisation while providing advertisers with measurable improvements to both their campaign and carbon costs.

Why does the market need it?

Digital advertising, especially in the programmatic space, is notorious for ingrained inefficiencies that are costly – both financially and environmentally. In a previous role at L'Oréal, I saw first-hand how the majority of ad budgets were wasted on low-quality websites, leading to unnecessary costs and emissions. This was a pivotal moment for me, and I founded Greenbids to reduce wasted spend and carbon emissions with technology that’s easy to adopt (our algorithms can be integrated into ad tech platforms in just one minute!)

While sustainability isn’t always an immediate priority in advertising, profitability is. Our trick is to make bidding algorithms that are so efficient that even if someone is a climate sceptic, the improvements to cost and performance are so significant that it’d be foolish not to implement them. Whether you care about the climate or not, we’ll still reduce your carbon footprint and boost your profits while doing so. Money will always move the needle the most and there is significant financial incentive to decarbonise.

So how does the business model work? What’s its secret to success?

If you’re a brand or an agency, only about a third of what you invest in programmatic advertising lands with what you would call “working media”, with the rest going to intermediaries and junk placements that have no chance of converting. We bring that third up to a half or more, covering our own fees while optimising your advertising spend – and decreasing your carbon footprint.

Greenbids is structured as a commission-based model. Our clients pay a fee based on the ad spend we optimise, allowing them to scale costs with their usage. This model keeps barriers low for new clients while tying our growth with their investment. From the start, we wanted a business model that was sustainable both financially and environmentally, one where the more we grow, the more we can cut down on unnecessary emissions. The first line in our profit and loss statement isn’t revenue, it’s the grams of CO2 our technology has saved per media dollar.

The core challenge in our space is gaining trust and traction in an industry that has historically been slow to prioritise sustainability. The secret to breaking through this inertia has been twofold: persistence and clarity of vision. From the start, we’ve stayed firm on our commitment to sustainable growth while clearly showing clients how we add value to their bottom line. After all, advertising is one of the few industries in which decarbonisation can be achieved while making a profit.

For other entrepreneurs working on their business model, my advice is to first sell your vision and validate it with real customers. Once you know your solution resonates, build around it with the feedback you get.

How do you market the company?

Our marketing strategy is built on transparency and results. We share metrics that matter — such as additional profit generated and the CO2 saved per dollar spent on media — to demonstrate the tangible impact our product has. Additionally, we focus on securing early adopters who are already sustainability-minded; they become advocates for our brand, helping to spread the word organically.

Building relationships with influential partners also goes a long way in creating credibility and visibility in the market. Our partners are genuinely inspired by our product and our vision; having a shared goal to rally behind creates unstoppable forward momentum.

Where is the business today?

Greenbids has seen remarkable growth since its inception in 2022. Our technology is now deployed in over 100 countries and, in two years, we’ve grown tenfold and reached multi-million revenues. We’re proud to have established partnerships with major players like Spotify and Accor Hotel Group, and our team has expanded from just three people in Paris in early 2023 to around 20 – split across France and the UK. The market is torn between improving performance while meeting sustainability goals, and we’ve arrived at the opportune moment to help on both fronts, without compromise.

What's your biggest strength?

Ideas are worth nothing without execution, and I’m pretty good at executing.

The market is too focused on trying to measure emissions, but measurement is not the end goal – it just gives you an idea of what has to be done. My focus has been on delivering a solution: we know wasted spend – as well as emissions – are high, so what can we do about it? And how can we get buy-in from those who put the money into the ecosystem?

Our success in securing this buy-in is down to the quality of our product and the strength of our partnerships. We have a technology that’s simple to integrate, yet incredibly impactful; you can see results from the moment it starts running. ​​As other industries continue to grapple with painful trade-offs, digital advertising can transform waste reduction into a competitive advantage, creating a leaner, more profitable ecosystem and setting the standard for climate-conscious capitalism.

Beyond the product, I’ve focused on building strong relationships with forward-thinking partners whose seal of approval helped us scale quickly and opened doors to an array of advertisers, ad tech providers, and publishers.

As for my own leadership style, I pursue a balance of accountability and humility. Take ownership of your successes and failures, and acknowledge the limits of what you can do on your own. A turning point for me was hiring a leadership coach; something I recommend every entrepreneur does for professional guidance. There are many challenges between the drawing board and growth, and you shouldn’t face them alone.

What is the future vision for Greenbids?

Our goal is to expand Greenbids globally and make sustainable advertising the standard, not the exception. Our suite of AI-powered tools already takes profit-generating carbon reduction to the next level – in five years, I see Greenbids being the go-to solution for any advertiser aiming to optimise ad spend and reduce emissions. We want to not only grow revenue but also make a meaningful impact on the industry, setting a new benchmark for media quality across all meanings of the word.

Ultimately, I think the business case for sustainability will become impossible to ignore in the next few years, leading to a huge shift as companies realise that performance and sustainability go hand in hand. Once that happens, people will follow the money towards a cleaner, more efficient media ecosystem and reap the rewards.