Yotpo raises $75M for its e-commerce marketing cloud

“Marketing Cloud” has become an increasingly popular concept in the world of marketing technology — used by the likes of Salesforce, Adobe, Oracle and others to describe their digital toolsets for organizations to identify and connect with customers. Now, a startup that is building its own take on the idea aimed specifically at e-commerce companies […] Continue reading Yotpo raises $75M for its e-commerce marketing cloud

BlueOcean uses automation to deliver affordable brand audits in seven days

BlueOcean is a new startup offering companies a relatively fast and affordable way to see how their brands are performing and what they can do to improve. CEO Grant McDougall and COO/President Liza Nebel (the pair founded BLueOcean with Chief Data Scientist Matthew Gross) told me they’ve been developing the technology for two years. And […] Continue reading BlueOcean uses automation to deliver affordable brand audits in seven days

Customer data platform ActionIQ raises $32M

ActionIQ co-founder and CEO Tasso Argyros knows that there are plenty of companies promising to help businesses use their customer data to deliver personalized experiences — as he put it, “The space has gotten very, very hot over the last couple of years.” But in the face of growing competition, ActionIQ (founded in 2014 and […] Continue reading Customer data platform ActionIQ raises $32M

Soci raises $12M to help big brands manage local marketing

According to CEO Afif Khoury, we’re in the middle of “the third wave of social” — a shift back to local interactions. And Khoury’s startup Soci (pronounced soh-shee) has raised $12 million in Series C funding to help companies navigate that shift. Soci works with customers like Ace Hardware and Sport Clips to help them […] Continue reading Soci raises $12M to help big brands manage local marketing

SocialRank sells biz to Trufan, pivots to a mobile LinkedIn

What do you do when your startup idea doesn’t prove big enough? Run it as a scrawny but profitable lifestyle business? Or sell it to a competitor and take another swing at the fences? Social audience analytics and ad targeting startup SocialRank chose the latter and is going for glory. Today, SocialRank announced it’s sold […] Continue reading SocialRank sells biz to Trufan, pivots to a mobile LinkedIn

Amperity acquires Custora to improve its customer data platform

Amperity announced today that it’s acquiring another company in the customer data business, Custora. Amperity co-founder and CEO Kabir Shahani told me that Custora’s technology complements what Amperity is already offering. To illustrate this point, he said that customer data tools fall into three big buckets: “The first is know your customer, the second is […] Continue reading Amperity acquires Custora to improve its customer data platform

Seismic acquires Percolate to expand its marketing tools

Seismic is announcing that it’s acquiring Percolate in a deal that it says is combining “two essential pillars of the marketing technology stack.” It sounds like the two companies aren’t direct competitors, but they offer related tools: Seismic helps companies create and manage the content they use in sales and marketing, while Percolate expanded from […] Continue reading Seismic acquires Percolate to expand its marketing tools

MediaRadar’s new product helps event organizers maximize sales

MediaRadar CEO Todd Krizelman describes his company as having “a very specific objective, which is to help media salespeople sell more advertising” by providing them with crucial data. And with today’s launch of MediaRadar Events, Krizelman hopes to do something similar for event organizers. These customer groups might actually be one and the same, as […] Continue reading MediaRadar’s new product helps event organizers maximize sales

Comscore raises $20M with an option to bump it to $50M, in a bid to rebuild its digital measurement business

Comscore’s name is usually in the news because of its widely-cited research and stats around media traffic and other analysis charting digital consumer behavior. More recently, it’s been coming up for another reason: ongoing corporate upheaval and its tumbling stock price. Today comes the latest development in that story: the company announced that it has […] Continue reading Comscore raises $20M with an option to bump it to $50M, in a bid to rebuild its digital measurement business

Foursquare buys Placed from Snap Inc. on the heels of $150M in new funding

Foursquare just made its first acquisition. The location tech company has acquired Placed from Snap Inc on the heels of a fresh $150 million investment led by the Raine Group. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. Placed founder and CEO David Shim will become President of Foursquare. Placed is the biggest competitor to […] Continue reading Foursquare buys Placed from Snap Inc. on the heels of $150M in new funding