Neil Sweeney
Founder and CEO at Kevel
Sweeney is known for founding Kevel and pioneering API-based ad serving infrastructure that enables companies to build their own custom ad platforms, making him a key architect of the retail media technology landscape.
Last updated May 30, 2026 by the ATDb Editorial Team
Neil Sweeney is best known as the founder and CEO of Kevel (formerly Adzerk), one of the AdTech industry's most influential infrastructure companies. Since founding the company in 2010, Sweeney has championed the idea that publishers, retailers, and marketplaces should own and control their own ad technology rather than ceding that power to dominant platforms like Google and Amazon. His API-first approach to ad serving gave rise to a new category of ad infrastructure tooling that has become foundational to the retail media boom. Under Sweeney's leadership, Adzerk rebranded to Kevel in 2020 to better articulate its mission of empowering companies to build custom, scalable ad platforms on top of flexible APIs. The company has grown to serve numerous Fortune 500 clients and has been widely credited with helping democratize ad tech by making enterprise-grade ad serving accessible to companies of all sizes. Kevel's infrastructure underpins ad platforms for major retailers, marketplaces, and media companies seeking to monetize first-party data and create new revenue streams. Sweeney has been a consistent voice in the industry advocating for an open, decentralized advertising ecosystem. He has spoken at major AdTech conferences and contributed thought leadership on topics including retail media, the deprecation of third-party cookies, and the importance of first-party data strategies. His work has positioned Kevel as a critical alternative to walled-garden ad platforms, earning recognition from industry analysts and trade press alike.
Founder and CEO
Adzerk (now Kevel) (2010-2020)
- Founded Adzerk in 2010, one of the first API-based ad serving platforms, later rebranded as Kevel in 2020
- Built Kevel into a leading infrastructure provider powering ad platforms for numerous Fortune 500 retailers and publishers
- Pioneered the concept of enabling companies to build and own their own ad tech stack as an alternative to Google and Amazon ad products
- Positioned Kevel as a key enabler of the retail media boom, one of the fastest-growing segments in digital advertising