Every now and then we like to highlight a new IAB Australia member that we think our community will find interesting. Today we meet Kevel. Written by Chris Woodworth, Regional Director APAC at Kevel.
Please give us some historical background to the company:
Founded in 2010 as Adzerk by James Avery, Kevel has grown to be a global innovator in retail media ad serving by doing things differently.
Kevel is continuously innovating and expanding for the supply side, building from a pure ad serving platform into a full Retail Media Cloud solution. Strategic acquisitions, like Velocidi (audience intelligence) and Nexta (AI-driven optimization) accelerate Kevel's growth, allowing customers to build scalable, transparent ad businesses on their own terms.
Tell us a little bit about your company's mission and vision?
Kevel is transforming the retail media space with its cutting-edge, AI-driven ad tech infrastructure APIs that power the Retail Media Cloud®. This groundbreaking solution combines the power of AI insights with API-based technology, allowing multi-brand retailers to build dynamic, customizable ad platforms while maintaining full control of their first-party data. With Kevel, retailers can deliver personalized shopper experiences, optimize ad targeting, and unlock predictive insights to stay ahead in an ever-evolving market.
Kevel's mission is rooted in the belief that every digital retailer should have the tools to create their own tailored ad platform, comparable to industry leaders like Amazon. Harnessing the power of AI for data-driven decision-making, Kevel has helped leading brands such as Chewy, The Home Depot, Dollar General, Sonae, Lyft, El Corte Ingles, Slickdeals, and others launch impactful retail media networks - fostering innovation and unlocking new revenue opportunities.
Do you have a particular 'hero product' that you are most proud of?
I’m cheating here, but Kevel has 3 core products that all operate seamlessly together. Our ad server, a tool called audience and a tool called Forecast. The idea being that using these 3 products all together enable a retailer or commerce provider to run a full retail media platform, utilise their data to power it and enable their brands to have intelligence prior to launching their campaigns. It’s a combination that is very effective and the business is rightly proud of.
What area of digital do you personally work in and how do you hope to enhance this within your business?
I have joined as the regional director for APAC, Kevel already has a footprint in this region but in 2026 it is a real focus for the business. I have worked in retail media since 2019, first in EMEA and then three years ago moving to this region. In this time I’ve worked with clients in over 20 countries so hope to bring this experience and knowledge to help the team already here and grow Kevel in the coming years. It is a very exciting time for the business with large growth all across the globe and APAC is a key part of this.
Please tell us what, as a child, you wanted to be 'when you grew up'?
Probably like a lot of young kids I was obsessed with dinosaurs so for many years I wanted to be an archaeologist. In fact I still class Jurassic Park as my favourite film as when I went to see it as a young child my head nearly exploded through excitement, a very fond memory!