Grapeshot
Grapeshot enabled advertisers to target audiences and protect brand reputation by analyzing the real-time semantic context of web content using AI, providing a privacy-safe alternative to behavioral targeting.
Last updated Jun 3, 2026 by ATDb automated enrichment · Connections updated Jun 8, 2026
- Industry
- Contextual Targeting & Brand Safety
- Business Model
- SaaS
- Target Market
- Enterprise
- Employee Count
- 51-200
- Funding
- $8M
- Parent Company
- Oracle Advertising
- API Available
- Yes
Was a leading contextual intelligence and brand safety platform, widely adopted by major agencies, DSPs, and advertisers globally before being absorbed into Oracle Advertising.
Grapeshot was a Cambridge, UK-based contextual targeting and brand safety company founded in 2006, originally spun out of research at the University of Cambridge. The company developed natural language processing and machine learning technology to analyze the semantic content of web pages in real time, enabling advertisers to target audiences based on the context of the content they were consuming rather than relying solely on user-level behavioral data. This approach made Grapeshot a significant player in the brand safety space, helping advertisers avoid placing ads alongside harmful or inappropriate content while simultaneously enabling more relevant contextual targeting at scale. Oracle acquired Grapeshot in April 2018 for a reported $400 million, integrating it into the Oracle Data Cloud as a core contextual intelligence layer. Within Oracle's ecosystem, Grapeshot's technology complemented other data assets including BlueKai (audience data), Moat (measurement), and Datalogix (offline data), positioning Oracle as a comprehensive advertising data and intelligence platform. Grapeshot's contextual capabilities became increasingly strategically important as the industry grappled with privacy regulations like GDPR and the deprecation of third-party cookies, which threatened behavioral targeting models and elevated the value of cookieless, content-based approaches. Despite its technological relevance in a privacy-first era, Grapeshot's fate was tied to Oracle's broader advertising ambitions. Oracle's advertising business suffered severe revenue decline — falling approximately 85% from roughly $2 billion in 2022 to around $300 million by 2024 — driven by GDPR enforcement, Apple's App Tracking Transparency framework, Google's cookie deprecation timeline, and Meta restricting third-party data partnerships. Oracle announced the wind-down of its entire advertising technology business, with all products including Grapeshot sunset by September 30, 2024, effectively ending the platform's operations.
Grapeshot Contextual Targeting
Real-time NLP-based analysis of web page content to enable keyword and topic-level contextual audience targeting across programmatic channels.
Grapeshot Brand Safety
Pre-bid and post-bid brand safety tools that classified web content to prevent ads from appearing alongside harmful, offensive, or brand-inappropriate material.
Grapeshot Keyword Segments
Custom and pre-built contextual audience segments based on semantic content signals, available for activation across major DSPs and ad platforms.
Oracle Contextual Intelligence (rebranded)
Post-acquisition, Grapeshot's technology was rebranded as Oracle Contextual Intelligence and integrated into the Oracle Advertising suite.
- 2006Founded
- —Defunct