Habu

A leading independent data clean room platform known for its interoperability across walled gardens and cloud environments, acquired by LiveRamp to bolster its data collaboration suite.

Habu was a data clean room software company that built a platform enabling brands, publishers, and data partners to collaborate on sensitive data sets without exposing raw, personally identifiable information. Founded in 2018, Habu positioned itself at the forefront of the privacy-first advertising movement, offering a flexible, interoperable clean room solution that worked across major walled gardens including Google, Amazon, and Meta, as well as open internet environments. Its technology allowed marketers to perform audience analysis, measurement, and activation in a secure, privacy-compliant manner. The company distinguished itself from competitors by offering a 'clean room operating system' approach — a neutral, cloud-agnostic layer that could connect disparate data environments rather than locking customers into a single ecosystem. This interoperability was a key differentiator as advertisers sought to unify insights across fragmented data landscapes in a post-cookie world. Habu served major enterprise brands, agencies, and publishers looking to future-proof their data strategies amid tightening privacy regulations like GDPR and CCPA. On January 31, 2024, LiveRamp completed its acquisition of Habu for approximately $200 million, integrating the platform into LiveRamp's broader data collaboration and connectivity suite. The acquisition significantly enhanced LiveRamp's clean room capabilities, combining Habu's flexible clean room infrastructure with LiveRamp's identity resolution and data network. Following the acquisition, Habu's technology and team were absorbed into LiveRamp, with the Habu brand being folded into LiveRamp's product portfolio rather than continuing as a standalone entity.