The Trade Desk

The Trade Desk was founded in 2009 by Jeff Green, its chief executive, and David Pickles, its chief technology officer, who had met at Microsoft after it acquired Green’s earlier company, AdECN. It is headquartered in Ventura, California and trades on Nasdaq as TTD.

What it does

The company runs a demand-side platform (DSP): software that advertisers and agencies use to buy digital advertising across many sites and apps in an automated way. Wikipedia describes it as the largest independent demand-side platform in the world.

Initiatives named in the source

• Unified ID 2.0 (UID2.0), an identity standard launched in mid-2020 as an alternative to third-party cookies.
• OpenPath, launched in early 2022, which gives advertisers direct access to publishers’ inventory; Condé Nast, Reuters and The Washington Post are named as users.
• Kokai, a media-buying platform launched in June 2023 that uses AI and deep learning.
• OpenSincera API, announced in May 2025, for advertising-quality metadata.

Size

For 2024 the source gives revenue of $2.44 billion, operating income of $427 million and about 3,900 employees. The company joined the S&P 500 index in July 2025.