Elcano / About

Named for the navigator who finished the voyage.

Our name pays tribute to Juan Sebastián Elcano, the Basque explorer who completed the first circumnavigation of the Earth in 1522. Though he began his journey under Ferdinand Magellan's command, it was Elcano who, after Magellan's death, navigated uncharted waters and led the expedition home — defying the odds and proving that the world was truly connected.

Our mission

Bring programmatic back to its original promise: performance, intelligence, and efficiency. Like our namesake, we guide partners through complexity with clarity, resilience, and innovation.

Where we sail

Pioneers in curation, charting the next course.

We see a clear parallel between Elcano's journey and the evolution of programmatic media. What began as a bold promise — to connect advertisers and audiences with precision and scale — has often veered off course, becoming fragmented and inefficient. As pioneers in supply-side curation, we're redefining the digital media landscape by helping our partners not only navigate the ecosystem, but lead it.

Now we're broadening the horizon. The same discipline that made curation performant — sandboxed execution, hard budgets, a full audit trail — is what serious teams need to trust AI agents with real work. So we built Victoria, our flagship agent for ad operations, and the open fleet platform she runs on. Curation is not something we left behind; our curation partners remain at the center of everything we do, and the new tools make that work sharper still.

What stays true
  • Supply-side curation that our partners already rely on.
  • Victoria, an AI agent built for the hard parts of programmatic ad ops.
  • fleet, our open platform for running agents on infrastructure you own.
  • Performance, transparency, and efficiency as the standard, not the upsell.
The logo · /elˈka.no/

A nautical star, reimagined.

Our logo began with the idea of a nautical star — a timeless symbol of navigation and discovery — reimagined into a sleek, modern form. Each quarter-circle element comes together to create a sense of direction, balance, and purposeful connection, much like the cardinal points guiding explorers to new horizons.

Subtle details, like the spark motif nestled within the design, inject a sense of energy and momentum, reflecting Elcano's drive to push boundaries and inspire progress. From sketch to execution, the mark is a fusion of bold innovation and timeless symbolism — designed to reflect Elcano's journey while setting the course for a future of boundless potential.

“Those who don’t look forward, stay behind.”
Traditional Basque saying
The crew

At the helm.

Like our namesake, we guide partners through complexity with clarity, resilience, and innovation.

“Curation becomes especially powerful when supply-side intelligence is paired with bidding and activation strategies, creating a more efficient path to performance for advertisers.”
KV Kyle Vidasolo
CEO & Founder, Elcano
KV

Founded Elcano. Previously President of Outcomes at Omnicom Media Group and an early team member at Audigent.

BS

Runs Elcano's operations and builds data-driven solutions for brands and partners.

BF

Leads engineering — data platforms, forecasting engines, and the fleet infrastructure our agents run on.

BD
CV
Trading
MO
Trading
JR
Client Partnerships
EM
Senior Engineer
SM
Solutions Engineer
RY
Engineer
JZ
Engineer

Chart your next course with us.

Whether you're curating supply or putting agents to work, we'd like to hear what you're navigating.