Mike Caprio
CEO & Founder at Kevel
Caprio is known for founding Kevel and pioneering the API-first, server-side ad serving infrastructure model that enables companies to build custom ad platforms and retain full control over their data and user experience.
Last updated May 30, 2026 by the ATDb Editorial Team
Mike Caprio is best known as the founder and CEO of Kevel (formerly Adzerk), a company he built from the ground up in 2010 to give developers and businesses the infrastructure APIs needed to construct fully custom ad platforms. Rather than offering another black-box ad network, Caprio pioneered an API-first approach to ad serving that has become increasingly influential as retailers, publishers, and marketplaces seek to own their technology and data rather than cede control to third-party platforms. Kevel's server-side ad decisioning technology has positioned the company as a critical infrastructure layer for the retail media boom, powering ad serving for notable brands across e-commerce and publishing. Caprio has spent over a decade advocating for a fundamentally different model of ad tech — one built on transparency, developer control, and first-party data. As retail media networks emerged as one of the fastest-growing segments in digital advertising, his early bets on infrastructure-as-a-service for ad serving proved prescient. He has been a consistent voice arguing that retailers and publishers should build rather than buy commoditized ad tech, and that server-side decisioning is essential for performance, privacy, and user experience in a post-cookie world. Beyond running Kevel, Caprio is a recognized thought leader who speaks and writes on retail media infrastructure, the limitations of traditional programmatic advertising, and the strategic importance of owning your ad stack. His company's rebrand from Adzerk to Kevel in 2020 signaled a broader strategic vision around empowering businesses to become their own ad platforms, a thesis that has attracted customers ranging from independent publishers to major retail media operators.
CEO & Founder
Adzerk (now Kevel) (2010-2020)
- Computer Science background
- Founded Kevel (formerly Adzerk) in 2010, building one of the earliest API-first ad serving infrastructure platforms
- Led the company's strategic rebrand from Adzerk to Kevel in 2020 to reflect a broader vision of enabling businesses to become their own ad platforms
- Positioned Kevel as a leading infrastructure provider for the retail media network boom, serving major publishers, retailers, and marketplaces
- Championed server-side ad decisioning as a privacy-safe and performance-superior alternative to client-side ad serving