Blake Commagere
Co-Founder and CTO at Kevel
Commagere is known for pioneering API-first ad serving infrastructure through Kevel, enabling companies to build custom ad platforms and fueling the rise of independent retail media networks.
Last updated May 30, 2026 by the ATDb Editorial Team
Blake Commagere is best known as the technical architect behind Kevel (formerly Adzerk), one of the AdTech industry's most influential infrastructure companies. By building API-first ad serving tools that allow companies to construct their own custom ad platforms, Commagere helped define an entirely new category in advertising technology — one that prioritizes publisher and retailer control over reliance on walled-garden ad networks. His early conviction that the future of digital advertising would require flexible, programmable infrastructure has proven prescient, particularly as retail media networks have exploded in prominence and privacy regulations have reshaped the industry. Commagere co-founded Adzerk in 2010, growing it from a bootstrapped startup into a platform processing billions of ad decisions monthly for clients including Ticketmaster, Reddit, and Strava. The company rebranded to Kevel in 2020 to better reflect its evolution into a full-stack ad infrastructure provider. Under his technical leadership, Kevel developed server-side decisioning engines, user segmentation tools, and auction mechanics that give brands and publishers the building blocks to compete with large ad tech incumbents on their own terms. As a practitioner-turned-thought-leader, Commagere has been a vocal advocate for first-party data strategies, cookieless advertising solutions, and the democratization of ad serving technology. His work has positioned Kevel as a critical enabler of the retail media boom, providing the infrastructure layer that allows companies like grocery chains, marketplaces, and media companies to launch and scale their own monetization platforms without building from scratch.
Co-Founder and CTO
Adzerk (now Kevel) (2010-2020)
- Co-founded Adzerk in 2010 and scaled it into Kevel, processing billions of ad requests monthly for major brands including Reddit, Ticketmaster, and Strava
- Pioneered the API-first ad serving category, enabling publishers and retailers to build custom ad platforms independent of traditional ad networks
- Led the company's strategic rebrand from Adzerk to Kevel in 2020, reflecting its evolution into a comprehensive ad infrastructure provider
- Positioned Kevel as a key infrastructure enabler of the retail media network boom