Civolution has been recognized as the world leader in watermarking and fingerprinting based content identification solutions. The company was formed in October 2008 as a spin-off of Royal Philips Electronics, and was backed by Amsterdam-based VC firm Prime Ventures. In July 2009, Civolution acquired the Software and Technology Solutions business from Thomson, formerly Nextamp, after which the company created a portfolio of innovative solutions that ultimately formed its three business units that were each divested separately:
- In December 2014, WPP's Kantar Media acquired Civolution's audio watermarking business supporting technology solutions for Audience Measurement and SyncNow, its Second Screen synchronization product.
- In July 2015, US data science and advertising technology company 4C Insights acquired Civolution's Teletrax business, owning the world's largest television broadcast monitoring networks supporting applications for TV Analytics and TV-synchronized digital advertising. Today Teletrax is part of Kinetiq.
- And finally in July 2016, Kudelski Group acquired Civolution's market leading NexGuard Forensic Watermarking business supporting content tracking solutions for pre-release, digital cinema, pay TV and streaming.
The company has won over a dozen industry awards for its various product innovations, the last two ones being the most prestigious of all:
- in January 2016 Civolution received a Technology & Engineering Emmy® Award for its Steganographic Technologies for Audio/Video
- in January 2018 Civolution received a Technology & Engineering Emmy® Award for its Video Identification Technology to Protect Content Value and Copyright