ICARO's Elevator Gambit: AI and Otis Deal Target Captive Audiences

NEW YORK, NY – November 25, 2025 – The daily elevator ride—often a moment of quiet reflection or awkward silence—is being targeted as the next frontier for digital monetization. In a move that underscores the relentless push to digitize physical spaces, AI media technology firm ICARO Media Group has announced a multiyear partnership with Otis Mobility S.A., the Spanish division of elevator giant Otis. The deal will see ICARO deploy a network of 50,000 screens in elevator cars across Spain, Portugal, and parts of Africa, transforming them into channels for AI-driven news and advertising.

This partnership represents a significant commercialization milestone for ICARO, a privately held, venture-backed company looking to carve out a niche in the competitive media landscape. By targeting the ultimate “captive audience,” ICARO is betting that moments of enforced idleness can be converted into a steady stream of revenue. The move signals a broader trend where legacy infrastructure is being retrofitted into sophisticated, data-driven media real estate, blurring the lines between our physical and digital worlds.

“This partnership allows ICARO to continue the expansion of our Multiscreen Network, focused on full funnel monetization strategies for our partners and driving increased valuation for our shareholders,” said Paul Feller, Chairman and CEO of ICARO Media Group, in the announcement. “Digital media's future is no longer limited to the TV or mobile screen.”

The Anatomy of a Deal: Growth by Acquisition

The foundation for this ambitious European expansion was laid just weeks ago with ICARO’s strategic acquisition of Liftmedia, a Lisbon-based Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH) firm, for a reported $15 million. That purchase provided ICARO not only with an existing network in Portugal but also the crucial relationships and infrastructure to secure the deal with Otis Mobility S.A. This buy-and-build strategy is a classic path to rapid scaling, allowing the New York-based company to gain an immediate and substantial foothold in the European market.

This approach is characteristic of a venture-backed company eager to demonstrate growth and capture market share. Unlike a publicly-traded behemoth, ICARO’s success hinges on executing such strategic moves to prove its model and justify its valuation to investors. The company has raised at least $9.2 million in capital and has been actively acquiring smaller DOOH players, including RioVerde in Brazil, to assemble a global “Multiscreen Monetization Network.”

Notably, while ICARO has heavily promoted the partnership, its partner’s publicly-traded parent, Otis Worldwide Corporation (NYSE: OTIS), has remained silent. No corresponding announcement has appeared in Otis’s corporate newsroom or investor filings. This suggests the deal, while transformative for ICARO, may be considered a regional, operational arrangement for the elevator manufacturing giant, which primarily focuses on its core business of industrial installation and services.

Riding the Digital Out-of-Home Wave

ICARO’s timing appears astute. The company is diving into a European DOOH market that is not just growing, but accelerating. Valued at over USD 3.3 billion in 2024, the market is projected to more than double to USD 8.13 billion by 2033. This growth is fueled by programmatic technology that allows for automated, data-informed ad buying, making OOH advertising as flexible and measurable as its online counterparts.

The in-elevator niche is particularly valuable. Globally, elevator advertising is a market worth over $12 billion, prized for its ability to deliver messages to a distraction-free audience. As ICARO’s EVP of Media, Alexandre Dell Aringa dos Santos, noted, “In a closed and highly receptive environment, elevators become privileged spaces to capture the audience’s attention multiple times a day.”

ICARO projects its new network of 50,000 screens will reach over 2.4 million people daily, generating approximately 60 million weekly views. While such figures are promotional and depend on proprietary measurement methodologies, a basic calculation suggests an average of 48 unique daily viewers per screen—a plausible figure for elevators in commercial buildings or dense residential complexes. The key is converting that attention into a commercially viable product.

The AI in the Elevator Car

This is more than just putting televisions in a box. The core of ICARO’s value proposition is its use of Generative AI to deliver what it calls “hyperlocal news and personalized content.” The goal is to create a content loop that is contextually relevant to each specific building, theoretically increasing engagement and, by extension, the effectiveness of the advertisements that run alongside it.

For advertisers, this promises a powerful new tool. “We offer our customers a unique opportunity for segmentation and direct connection with the end consumer, through innovative formats and with a high impact index,” explained Flavio Polay, ICARO’s Chief Media Officer. An advertiser could, for example, target residents of a luxury apartment building with ads for high-end local restaurants, or office workers with promotions for nearby lunch spots.

This strategy hinges on ICARO's ability to execute a complex technological and logistical operation. It must successfully integrate its AI content engine with its newly acquired screen network across thousands of locations in multiple countries. The success of this commercialization effort will depend on whether its AI can truly deliver content compelling enough to hold a viewer's attention for the duration of a 30-second ride, multiple times per day.

As companies like ICARO continue to innovate, they are testing the boundaries of consumer acceptance and redefining public and semi-private spaces. This deal transforms the elevator from a simple utility into a node in a vast, interconnected media network. For ICARO, this is a calculated step from prototype to profit, betting that even the briefest moments of our day are valuable commodities waiting to be unlocked.