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Venture Capital News: Appboy Raises $50M in Series D

2017-08-09
NEW YORK, NY, Leader in lifecycle engagement technology, today announced a $50 million Series D round of financing led by ICONIQ Capital.
Appboy, the global leader in lifecycle engagement technology, today announced a $50 million Series D round of financing led by ICONIQ Capital, a growth equity investor and global multi-family office with recent investments in Houzz, InVision, and Sprinklr. Appboy provides consumer scale CRM software to help marketers collect data from anywhere into a single view of each customer, and combine it with marketing automation and campaign orchestration to deliver real-time, personalized crosschannel messaging experiences that drive long term relationships between brands and customers.

"We have invested in the best-in-class growth technology companies and believe Appboy has the strong characteristics of market leadership we have seen in other generational innovators," said Matthew Jacobson, General Partner at ICONIQ Capital. "Appboy has distinguished itself through the strength of its product and service echoed by their customers in addition to the depth and integrity of the team. We believe the company is very well positioned to challenge the legacy marketing cloud players. We are thrilled to add Appboy to our network and look forward to supporting their continued success."

Appboy has experienced exponential growth across its business in recent years, including a 12X increase in annual recurring revenue, with Q2 2017 representing the company's strongest bookings quarter to date. Additionally, the company has seen 7X increase in total message volume on a year-over-year basis.

"Appboy now sends tens of billions of messages per month, and maintains profiles for nearly a billion monthly active users spanning more than 400 clients in 35 countries across six continents," said Bill Magnuson, CEO and cofounder of Appboy. "This significant infusion of capital marks our next phase of growth, allowing us to execute on our product vision while we continue leading the charge to replace the incumbent marketing clouds. By combining the expertise of our people and the sophistication of our platform, brands can satisfy the ever-changing demands of their customers by delivering real-time, crosschannel experiences that build long term value for brands."

Appboy customers include leading brands in mobile like Airbnb, Delivery Hero, DraftKings, Jet.com, Lyft, Postmates, and Rent the Runway, and traditional enterprise brands who have embraced the need for a new approach like ABC News, Citi Global Cards, Domino's, Hearst Television, SK Telecom, and Urban Outfitters.

"Domino's places high value in emerging technology as we grow our business and create enhanced customer experiences through digital communication," said Dennis Maloney, Chief Digital Officer of Domino's. "Looking ahead, we're excited to have a partner in Appboy who shares that vision."

"Appboy is integral in unifying our diverse network of brands under a single technology stack. To date, we've sent millions of messages via Appboy across 20+ apps in 40 countries, and they scale with us as we continue to grow globally," said Mats Diedrichsen, Chief Marketing Officer of Delivery Hero. "With consumers demanding personalized experiences across channels including email, mobile, web, OTT, and emerging channels, we've found that Appboy is positioned to deliver on all of our engagement needs versus the legacy marketing clouds."

In addition to ICONIQ leading the round, Series C lead, Battery Ventures, and all prior major investors participated. The new financing will allow Appboy to continue to further its growth trajectory, replacing incumbent marketing clouds in email and driving leading brands into the future by empowering them to imagine, create, and evolve enriching customer experiences that foster long term value. For more information, please visit Appboy.com.

Comments on the news:

"We've been very impressed with Appboy's breakthrough customer engagement and relationship management offerings," said Alice Milligan, Chief Customer and Digital Experience Officer for Citi Global Cards. "Our new partnership with Appboy will enable Citi to build stronger personalized relationships with our customers and will substantially enhance our digital capabilities."

"In 2006, I was the first investor in Marketo, a pioneer and early leader in the marketing automation space. I feel so fortunate to now be an investor in Appboy which is leading the next wave of marketing software based on a breakthrough product that allows marketers to understanding and interact with their customers at a new level of intelligence," said Doug Pepper, Managing Director at Shasta Ventures formerly at InterWest Partners.

About Appboy
Appboy is the leading lifecycle engagement platform for marketing, growth, and engagement teams. We empower brands to humanize connections with customers, resulting in better experiences and increased retention, lifetime value, and ROI. With Appboy, brands seamlessly gather and manage actionable customer data, allowing them to reach their audience with targeted, personalized crosschannel messaging experiences. Appboy is a venture-backed company of more than 175 employees, with offices in New York City, San Francisco, and London. Appboy has been named a Digiday Signal Award Finalist for Best Marketing Automation Platform and Best CRM Platform, a VentureBeat Omnichannel MMA "Best Bet," and was selected by Forbes as a Cloud100 Rising Star. Learn more at Appboy.com.
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