Podmerse launches to make podcast sponsorship deals more transparent

A new database called Podmerse has launched to give creators and advertisers a clearer picture of which brands are spending money on podcast sponsorships.

Founded by Anuj and Vineet Agarwal, the platform allows podcasters to identify potential sponsors by looking at which brands are advertising on similar shows. Advertisers can also use it to find partners and see where competitors are spending.

Launched on 28 October, Podmerse tracks more than 2 million sponsored episodes involving over 368,000 brands across nearly 44,000 shows. The database is updated daily, allowing users to search by category and see when a brand last sponsored a programme.

The idea came from a lack of publicly accessible information about who is buying podcast advertising, according to co-founder Anuj Agarwal.

“Search and social have ad libraries that let anyone see what brands are running. Podcasts have had nothing similar: audio sellers and podcasters had no simple way to see who is buying podcast ads,” Agarwal told The Daily Influence.

He said the team's experience building MillionPodcasts, a B2B podcast database, and FeedSpot, a media discovery platform, had given them access to data on millions of shows.

Podmerse identifies sponsors by analysing episode descriptions and converting audio from popular shows into text. It then groups different names used by the same advertiser under one brand to track sponsorship activity.

The company's early data also offers a glimpse into how frequently brands change their advertising placements.

Of 125,429 brand-and-show pairings recorded in the first quarter of 2026, only 34% appeared again on the same programme in the second quarter, even though those shows continued running ads.

Agarwal cautioned that this does not necessarily mean campaigns were unsuccessful, pointing to changes in budgets, campaign schedules and where advertisers choose to spend.

About 31% of the pairings that did not continue involved brands that were still sponsoring other shows in the second quarter, suggesting potential opportunities for creators approaching advertisers already active in the market.