Business
Direct Digital Holdings Executives Mark D. Walker and Keith Smith Named EY Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2023 Gulf South Award Winners
AdTech company co-founders selected for prestigious regional award celebrating ambitious entrepreneurs who are building a better world HOUSTON, June 20, 2023
About this update from Direct Digital Holdings, Inc.
[{"type":"text","content":"AdTech company co-founders selected for prestigious regional award celebrating ambitious entrepreneurs who are building a better world\nHOUSTON, June 20, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Direct Digital Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: DRCT) (\"Direct Digital Holdings\" or the \"Company\"), a leading advertising and marketing technology platform operating through its companies Colossus Media, LLC (\"Colossus SSP\"), Huddled Masses LLC (\"Huddled Masses\") and Orange142, LLC (\"Orange142\"), today announced that its co-founders, Mark D. Walker, Chairman and CEO, and Keith Smith, President, were selected by Ernst & Young LLP (EY US) as Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2023 Gulf South Award winners.\nDirect Digital Holdings and its subsidiaries create a unique advertising ecosystem that offers services on both the ad-buy and ad-sell sides, strategically positioning the company to reach consumers, brands and publishers of all sizes. The Company has been particularly successful in focusing on opportunities in small-to-mid-sized media markets and multicultural communities, which are often overlooked and undervalued in the advertising industry.\n\"As someone who was raised in the Houston-area, winning a Gulf South Award for the company I co-founded with my good friend, Keith, is thrilling and a testament to what we have accomplished in disrupting the ad space,\" said Walker. \"We are grateful to Ernst & Young, for the recognition, and recognize the incredible talent and dedication of those working at our portfolio companies, Colossus SSP, Huddled Masses and Orange142. Keith and I also thank the entire Direct Digital Holdings team including our partners and clients who made this all possible.\"\nDirect Digital Holdings has continued to see robust financial performance, experiencing 131% and 87% year-over-year Revenue growth in fiscal year 2022 and the first quarter of fiscal 2023, respectively. The Company processed approximately 207 billion monthly impressions and received more than six billion bid responses in the first quarter of 2023, increases of more than 130% and 81% over the same period in 2022, respectively.\n\"Direct Digital Holdings' success is rooted in the hard work and commitment we have long seen in taking advantage of advertising opportunities targeting underserved communities and markets often overlook,\" added Smith. \"Mark and I are enormously pr...