Audion names Mike Villalobos as first chief revenue officer to support its US expansion
Audion, the AI-powered performance audio advertising technology company, named Mike Villalobos as chief revenue officer. Villalobos will lead Audion's revenue strategy and commercial organisation as the company builds its US business.
Villalobos joins Audion from Seedtag where he was SVP, global go-to-market and commercial operations, overseeing demand and supply revenue, commercial operations, analytics, measurement and client services across 17 markets. He previously ran the company's North America business. Earlier in his career he held roles at PubMatic and #Paid, led new business for Teads' performance advertising division, and was a founding member and SVP of sales at FuelX, where he built the sales organisation and opened multiple offices nationally.
The hire follows Audion's $15 million Series B in March and the company's US launch in April, when co-founder and co-CEO Arthur Larrey announced his relocation to New York to lead the effort. Audion has since added Jake Cameron as head of marketing, Andy Munro-Lott as senior director of sales, and Caroline Maher as sales director, bringing the US team to five with an aggressive expansion plan ahead.
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Villalobos will own revenue across Audion's demand and supply business and report to Arthur Larrey. His mandate is the US first, with responsibility for the company's global commercial organisation as it scales.
"Mike has built commercial teams in this market before," said Larrey. "That's the piece you can't import from Europe, and it's the reason we went after him."
The US opportunity Audion is chasing is a gap between attention and spend. Audio accounts for roughly 21% of daily media time in the US - more than connected TV - but takes about 5% of ad spend, according to eMarketer. Digital audio's share is smaller still, at under 2%. Audion's argument is that the gap persists because audio has lacked the targeting, optimisation and outcome measurement advertisers expect elsewhere, and that closing it requires making audio buyable on performance rather than reach.
That is the category Audion calls Performance Audio, where campaigns are planned, activated and optimised against business outcomes. Using proprietary contextual and AI technology, Audion analyses audio and video content to understand what audiences are actually hearing and watching, enabling advertisers to activate campaigns across premium audio and video environments and optimise toward measurable outcomes.
“Audio is still bought largely on reach and good intentions,” said Villalobos. “Audion has the technology to make it accountable, and to leverage the business success built in Europe to earn the right to succeed in other markets. Doing that in the US first from the ground up is the challenge I wanted."
Founded in 2018 by Arthur Larrey and Kamel El Hadef, Audion works with more than 3,000 advertisers and agencies across Europe and the United States.
About Audion
Audion is an advertising technology company that makes digital audio a measurable, performance-driven media channel. Its proprietary AI and contextual technology helps advertisers make audio a more measurable, performance-driven channel, analyzing audio and video content to inform contextual targeting, activation and optimization across premium digital environments. Founded in 2018 by Arthur Larrey and Kamel El Hadef, Audion works with more than 1,500 advertisers and agencies and operates across key markets in Europe and the United States.
