Sequoia is a venture capital focused on energy, financial, enterprise, healthcare, internet, and mobile startups. The firm helps a small number of daring founders build legendary companies. It spurs them to push the boundaries of what’s possible. The firm seeks to invest in all sectors with a focus on energy, financials and financial services, healthcare and healthcare services, Internet, mobile, outsourcing, and technology.

Sequoia Capital

Amplify Partners invests in technical founders solving technical problems for the enterprise. They invest in early-stage companies pioneering novel applications in machine intelligence and computer science.

Amplify Partners

Bowery Capital is an early-stage venture capital investor focused exclusively on founders looking to modernize business through technology. As more and more internet natives drive purchasing decisions, Bowery Capital believes that roughly $468B will change hands over the next 10 years as old products are replaced with new. In addition, the firm believes that the key ingredient to early success is revenue and customer growth, and as such provides various products and services through their Acceleration Team that portfolio companies can leverage to develop a strong early base. This combination of a focused thesis and support system are the cornerstones of Bowery Capital's investment approach. For more information visit: www.bowerycap.com or find us on Twitter at: @BoweryCapital.

Bowery Capital

FirstMark is an early-stage venture capital firm based in New York City, backing exceptional founders making their mark on the world. FirstMark has proudly invested in founders of remarkable businesses like Pinterest, Shopify, DraftKings, Discord, Airbnb, Stubhub, Riot Games, and dozens more.

FirstMark

Andreessen Horowitz is a venture capital firm specializing in investing in seed, start-ups, early, mid-stage, growth, and late-stage. It prefers to invest in the social media business and technology sector with a focus on software, back-end infrastructure, the infrastructure of the Internet, cloud computing, enterprise software and services, consumer, business Internet, mobile-Internet, consumer Internet, cloud computing, data storage, social network browsers data-storage, consumer electronics, networking functions, software related biology, biotech, and medicine companies at the intersection of computer science and life sciences with a focus on digital therapeutics, cloud technology in biology, and computational medicine.

Andreessen Horowitz

Shutterstock, Inc. (NYSE: SSTK), is a global provider of high-quality licensed photographs, vectors, illustrations, videos and music to businesses, marketing agencies and media organizations around the world. Working with its growing community of over 60,000 contributors, Shutterstock adds tens of thousands of images each week, and currently has more than 40 million images and 2 million video clips available.   Headquartered in New York City, with offices in Amsterdam, Berlin, Chicago, Denver, London, Paris and San Francisco, Shutterstock has customers in more than 150 countries. The company also owns Bigstock, a value-oriented stock media agency; Offset, a high-end image collection; Skillfeed, an online marketplace for learning; and WebDAM, a cloud-based digital asset management service for businesses.

Shutterstock

March Capital is a venture growth firm headquartered in Santa Monica, California and investing globally since 2014. March identifies entrepreneurs with a provocative vision to companies poised, then dares to go all in by leading rounds with deep conviction and concentration risk. With $1B+ in capital over 4 funds and across 30 market technology companies, March accelerates the digital transformation of Cloud-based software, automation, AI, and IT infrastructure. Its vision is to create a technology investment platform by combining intense sector focus, patience, access to a network (including founding The Montgomery Summit), and portfolio engagement to inspire and accelerate extraordinary companies.

March Capital

Balius Partners provides differentiated capital to mission-driven, owner-operators seeking a long-term partnership. It is based in Washington, District of Columbia.

Balius Partners

ActionIQ

ActionIQ is an innovative Enterprise Customer Data Platform for marketers, analysts, and technologists. We move marketing forward through the power of data, insightful analytics, and seamless marketing integration - filling in the white space left by all the Marketing Clouds.The company is dedicated to providing marketers with freedom and speed, scaling to any quantity of customer data. Capture, analyze, and utilize of all your data to build and launch marketing campaigns - without ever calling IT. AIQ is personalized marketing campaigns across all your channels in minutes, not months.  Based in New York City, we are backed by leading investors including Sequoia Capital and FirstMark Capital.

AIQ (formerly known as ActionIQ) specializes in providing a customer data platform (CDP) to help users unify, analyze, and interpret customer data. The platform is powered by proprietary data architecture “Infinite Compute” while allowing firms to connect and unify their first-party customer data from a variety of sources. Coupled with machine learning, personalized campaigns can be executed across multiple channels.&nbsp;

Using AI to automate, enhance and optimize marketing activities

Marketing Automation

Uniphore Acquires ActionIQ And Infoworks

AIQ (formerly known as ActionIQ) specializes in providing a customer data platform (CDP) to help users unify, analyze, and interpret customer data. The platform is powered by proprietary data architecture “Infinite Compute” while allowing firms to connect and unify their first-party customer data from a variety of sources. Coupled with machine learning, personalized campaigns can be executed across multiple channels.&nbsp;In June 2022, the firm launched CX hub, a self-service, modular customer experience platform enabling enterprise users to build audiences and launch customer experiences at scale. This also marked the firm's <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/11310">rebranding as AIQ</a> to mark its transition towards providing solutions for enterprise users.&nbsp;Key customers and partnershipsBy September 2021, AIQ served close to 2,000 enterprises including brands such as Conde Nast, New York Times, Michael Kors, and Shopify.&nbsp;In August 2021, the was also selected as a partner of Amazon, making its platform available on Amazon’s AWS marketplace. During the same month, AIQ partnered with Data Axle, a leading provider of data-driven marketing solutions, to offer a complete B2B customer experience on its platform. The firm also strengthened its offerings for enterprise users by<a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/12898"> partnering with Slalom</a>, a global consultancy firm, to offer specialized consultancy services tailored for the AIQ CX hub, as well as&nbsp; with <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/13028">Databricks</a>, a cloud-based data and analytics platform, to launch a CDP solution specialized for IT organizations .

Outbrain is an algorithm-based content recommendation and discovery platform that curates native advertising content from the open web, providing personalized content for brands to increase customer engagement. Outbrain also allows content publishers to amplify its reach by supplying content to the platform. As of September 2023, customers could access 7,000+ online content sources including content by the Washington Post, Guardian, and BBC.&nbsp;Outbrain has been a pioneer in the content recommendation space and was the first to introduce an algorithm-based content recommendation in 2008. It was also the first to introduce a self-service platform for content recommendation in 2012. In May 2021, it tested “QualityRatings,” a tool that implements quality guidelines for the content featured on its platform while using machine learning and AI to create a more personalized user experience. In September 2022, the firm launched <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/13122">Keystone</a>, a business optimization solution for publishers.&nbsp;Outbrain has made a series of acquisitions over the years while making enhancements to its product offerings. In November 2021, <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/6992">Outbrain acquired vi</a>, a contextual video intelligence platform for USD 55 million to grow its CTV and other display ads offerings. In August 2024, Outbrain acquired <a href="https://www.adexchanger.com/online-advertising/outbrain-acquires-teads-from-altice-for-1-billion/">Teads</a>, an SSP and video monetization company, to create an "end-to-end, full-funnel platform" by expanding into TV, video, and CTV advertising.&nbsp; Key customers and partnerships&nbsp;Outbrain’s customers include leading news media outlets such as CNN, MSN, and Sky News, serving more than a billion monthly users (by December 2022).&nbsp;&nbsp;In April 2022, Outbrain’s platform was <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/9907">integrated with ID5</a> to provide a privacy-first customer identification solution.

Outbrain

Marin Software is an adTech firm offering a suite of solutions for brands looking to conduct search, social media, and ecommerce advertising. The firm’s “MarineOne” solution enables Brands to integrate their data under a single platform; coupled with machine learning tools, marketers can optimize ad spending across multiple platforms. In the case of search and social media advertising, Brands can increase their visibility across a number of search engines and social media platforms including Google, Facebook, and Apple Search Ads.&nbsp;In recent years the firm has been making enhancements to transform its Marine One Software as a complete marketing campaign management &amp; intelligence solution. In line with the firm expanded its ecommerce advertising solution capabilities by increasing the number of integrations to include Criteo’s commerce media platform and Instacart’s advertising platform. In <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/12159">2022</a>, the firm rolled out a number of new product and features including 1) MarinOne bidding, the firm's ad bidding marketplace, 2) MarinOne support, to enable advertisers to improve ad performance with multi-edit ad scheduling solutions, 3) social rules engine, to help automate workflows, and 4) <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/15019">Budget Optimizer</a>, an ad budget management solution. More recently, in April 2023, the firm introduced an automation tool <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/17565">“MarinOne Scripts,”</a> which integrates Python scripting with its MarineOne platform, providing marketers with customized and data-driven solutions to optimize campaigns.&nbsp;Key customers and partnershipsAs of October 2021, several brands from varied industries, including Nissan, American Eagle outfitters, and Harmony, use the firm’s solutions.In 2021, the firm made a number of new initiatives in 2021, including an <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/7635">integration with Amazon Ads</a> and a <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/6973">partnership with CitrusAd </a>to expand the ecommerce capabilities of its platform. In January 2023, the company announced an <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/16172">integration with Yahoo</a> to broaden access to programmatic ad content.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Marin Software

Founded in China, Terminus claims to have the first account-based marketing (ABM) platform that unifies the marketing and sales teams’ roles under a single platform. Terminus specializes in B2B marketing and, according to the firm, its “Terminus Data Studio” has one of the largest B2B account databases, which by September 2021, covered more than 70 million businesses. Terminus’s customer data platform (CDP) is fully integrated with its marketing automation platform, through which teams can run multi-channel targeted campaigns across many channels including email, ad networks, live chat, and the web. This can then be analyzed with Terminus’ suite of analytics and attribution tools. By September 2021, Terminus served more than 1,000 customers, including Salesloft, Foundry, and Quantum Workplace.According to a study done by Forrester (in Q2 2020), Terminus has been recognized among the ABM platform leaders.Through a series of acquisitions, Terminus has transformed into a marketing cloud platform offering a range of services. Its two latest acquisitions took place within 12 months. In November 2020, it acquired Growflare, a lead generation and account-based intelligence platform catering to B2B startups, followed by B2B CDP Zylotech in September 2021. Terminus hoped to capitalize on these to build the most comprehensive ABM platform on the market.

Terminus

Founded in France, Brevo <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/18241">(formerly Sendinblue)</a> began as an email marketing automation platform catering to small and medium-scale businesses (SMB). It has since extended its services to become an all-in-one marketing platform; the range of services found on Brevo's platform include email and SMS marketing, customer relationship management (CRM) tools, landing page creation, and Facebook ad management, among others. In November 2022, the firm launched an <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/14388">integrated meetings solution</a> that brings together scheduling, video conferencing, and payment solutions. In March 2023, the company <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/17462">unveiled “Conversations”</a> to manage customer conversations across messaging channels in one centralized location.Brevo’s platform is compared with other well-known competitors such as Mailchimp and Hubspot and is commended for its live support and fair pricing, making it a strong contender in the SMB space.&nbsp;The company has expanded its product offering through a series of acquisitions during 2021-2022. Brevo acquired three firms in September 2021 for USD 47 million: 1) Metrilo, a provider of customer analytics and marketing services for ecommerce stores, 2) Chatra, a live chat messenger app for increasing online sales, and 3) PushOwl, a customer re-engagement website that uses web-based push notifications. In March 2022, the firm <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/9009">acquired MeetFox</a>, a meeting scheduling and video conferencing platform. In September 2022, the company <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/13360">acquired Yodel.io,</a> an Austrian cloud-based phone system provider, to enable additional customer touchpoints, and reduce the overall digital marketing spend for SMBs. More recently, in February 2023, the firm <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/16271?industryIds=62">acquired Captain Wallet,</a> a mobile wallet marketing platform, to broaden its reach internationally. In December 2023, Brevo acquired <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/24833">WonderPush and Octolis,</a> two customer interaction platforms, to expand its CRM capabilities.&nbsp;&nbsp;The firm achieved <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/15834">USD 100 million in Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR)</a> at the end of 2022 while maintaining a positive EBITDA position.&nbsp;Key customers and partnerships&nbsp;The platform catered to 500,000+ customers across 180 countries as of end December 2022.

Brevo

Acquia provides a digital experience platform (DXP) to support medium to large enterprises that use Drupal, an open-source content management system (CMS) that provides the back-end infrastructure for websites and by September 2021, powered approximately 2.1% of websites on the internet. The core product offered by Acquia is a marketing cloud that provides a full suite of services to manage the customer journey. The platform features a customer data platform (CDP), unifying data across multiple sources; sales automation tools to deliver personalized marketing campaigns across multiple delivery channels; marketing campaign management tools to manage distributed marketing teams; and a content management platform to organize and monitor content.&nbsp;Having been built on the Drupal framework, which does not require any programming skills to implement, Acquia’s marketing cloud claims to be more accessible and agile than enterprise cloud solutions provided by incumbents such as Adobe and Oracle. In 2021, Gartner’s Magic Quadrant report named Acquia a leader in DXP platforms, while a study done by Forrester (in July 2021) found that customers of Acquia’s DXP solutions experienced a payback on their investment in less than six months, generating an average return on investment (ROI) of 589% over three years.&nbsp;Acquia has made several investments and enhancements to its DXP platform. In January 2021, Acquia, in partnership with Commercetools and Lucidworks, launched “Acquia Digital Commerce,” a service for creating personalized digital shopping experiences for customers. The firm has also added a number of self-serve features to its CDP such as&nbsp;<a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/11422">“right to erasure”</a> to bolster the privacy and security features of its platform to cater to enterprise users. In&nbsp;<a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/35334">October 2024,</a> Acquia added AI capabilities to digital asset management solutions to accelerate campaign delivery.&nbsp;In September 2021, Acquia acquired Widen Enterprises, a digital asset management (DAM) and product information management (PIM) software company, for an undisclosed amount. As a result, customers can have a fully integrated experience on the platform, while the acquisition also added a further 700+ customers. In November 2023, the company acquired Monsido, a website accessibility and optimization solution from CivicPlus, to expand its platform capabilities.&nbsp;In&nbsp;<a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/36365">November 2024,&nbsp;</a>Acquia acquired Monsid to expand Acquia's digital experience platform capabilities.Key customers and partnershipsBy September 2021, Acquia counted one in four Fortune 500 companies, including Johnson &amp; Johnson, Bayer, and Xerox, among its customers.&nbsp;As of September 2024, the company served more than 4,000 customers globally.&nbsp;In June 2022, Acquia&nbsp;<a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/11352">partnered with Workato</a> (enterprise-level workflow automation platform) to integrate with Acquia’s CDP to expand enterprise use of the platform. The integration added 100+ technology integrations compatible with Acquia’s marketing cloud.&nbsp;

Acquia

Firms positioned as an 'all-in-one' marketing platform,  providing a variety of functions across the MarTech stack

Startups providing platforms for planning and managing marketing campaigns.

Startups offering tools for finding and attracting potential customers with targeted ads.

Startups providing tools to automate the execution of marketing campaigns across varied channels.

Startups providing tools for gathering, cleaning, and enhancing customer data to provide deep analytics. This also includes firms offering account-based marketing (ABM) solutions to drive targeted and personalized campaigns.

Companies that use GenAI as a core part of their product offering for marketing

Personalization tools are mainly used in AdTech and marketing campaign automation

Marketing automation provides measurement and attribution solutions to measure marketing effectiveness

Uses GenAI to automate content creation  and personalize content for marketing campaigns

Uses AI/ML to enable marketing automation, making it a core part of many companies' products

Metaverse advertising is being explored by AdTech segments for in-game advertising

The in-game advertising segment is in development and has a niche relevance to this area

<div>
 Uniphore, a company specializing in data AI cloud, has bought data firms ActionIQ and Infoworks. The financial details of the transaction have not been disclosed. The aim of these acquisitions is to aid Uniphore in the creation of its Zero Data AI Cloud platform.
 With these additions, Uniphore plans to assist enterprises in overcoming hurdles related to AI adoption. It intends to do this by enabling these organizations to utilize data for their AI initiatives, without the need to transfer, transform, or copy it. This approach could potentially reduce the time required to implement a project from years to weeks. The merged technology will offer a Data+AI solution that incorporates a four-layer AI architecture. This includes composable data, knowledge, model, and agent layers.
 ActionIQ provides customer data solutions and a Composable Zero-Copy Data Platform, which facilitates enterprises in linking data without the necessity of prolonged integration. On the other hand, Infoworks offers an Enterprise Data Platform, which includes AI data agents responsible for spotting, organizing, and purifying enterprise data with minimal human intervention.
</div>

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