Knower Tech, a Know Company division, is scaling its programmatic capabilities with the appointment of Mike Racic as Managing Director. Tasked with building a new integrated data vertical, Racic will apply 25 years of industry-shaping experience to simplify the ad tech ecosystem for brands and agencies alike.
Racic joins Knower Tech from Prebid.org, where he helped transform the organization from a volunteer open-source project into a premier publisher-first institution. Under his leadership, Prebid tripled paid membership; launched mobile SDK 3.0; introduced advanced technology for measurement, CTV, digital out-of-home, audio, and AI-driven workflows; and created must-attend summits in New York, London, Germany, and Cannes. Racic arranged for Prebid to steward AAO’s Sellers Agent on behalf of publishers.
Racic and Knower Tech will remain active members of Prebid, and Racic will support the management transition at Prebid to ensure continuity for members, partners, contributors, and the broader open-source community.
At Knower Tech, Racic has the chance to lead a new wave in programmatic evolution from the buy side. He intends to synthesize complementary data tools (RainBarrel, Cross Pixel, and Real Impression) into a cohesive, AI-powered vertical for agencies and in-house marketing teams. This ecosystem will allow brands to seamlessly activate their own first-party data assets across the open web in a privacy-safe manner.
A key component will be a curation offering that allows advertisers to apply Knower Tech’s proprietary data layers to high-quality publisher inventory, RainBarrel and Cross Pixel offer more than 15,000 audience segments based on where consumers actually go—both on foot and online. And Real Impression ferrets out bots. Racic can tap the agencies within IKPN (Independent Knowledge Partner Network), another Know Company division, for continuous testing and feedback on new products.
“We can turn market fragmentation into a competitive advantage,” said Racic. “I’m focused on engineering the structural backbone advertisers need to thrive as signals degrade, regulatory pressure intensifies, and the industry moves to agentic protocols.”
Racic has made a career of scaling agency, publishing, and businesses around new technology. After running Universal McCann’s US media planning, he built Rocket Fuel’s agency partnership business, turned iCrossing from a search provider into a full-service programmatic agency, made Fandom into the premier first-party data source of gamers, and then scaled Prebid.
“Mike will accelerate our drive to a unified programmatic ecosystem,” said Stephanie McCabe, President of Knower Tech. “By leveraging proprietary AI to bridge the gaps between disparate technologies, we can elevate both the buy and sell sides of the marketplace.”
Knower Tech recently integrated a sophisticated AI advisor into RainBarrel, while its flagship application, Ads Copilot (ACP), serves as a powerful generative intelligence layer. Rather than navigating fragmented dashboards, ACP allows users to instantly synthesize complex data across multiple platforms—so they can spot market pressure points and generate optimal strategies in real time.
Know Company founded on the premise that making premier technologies more accessible powers business growth. All the company’s products can be used by individuals on demand, without licenses or layers of approval – allowing for stronger, timelier responses to market conditions. The mission is to make planners smarter in real time by reducing the drag on their work and drain on their lives. With a growing team in the US now anchored by Racic in New York, Knower Tech is poised to deepen its impact across the U.S. market where the majority of its client base operates.
“Mike’s elite expertise puts us on another level,” said Vikram Seth, Founder and CEO of Know Company. “He has the comprehensive perspective and freedom to create technologies that can influence the next generation of ad tech altogether.”
