SessionM Receives $23.8 Million Investment Led by Salesforce Ventures

SessionM, a Boston-based customer data and engagement startup founded in 2010, announced that it has raised $23.8 million in a round led by Salesforce Ventures. Causeway Media Partners, CRV, General Atlantic, Highland Capital, Kleiner Perkins, and Caufield & Byers also participated.
 
CEO and cofounder Lars Albright—a veteran of the mobile advertising sector who sold his previous company, Quattro Wireless, to Apple in 2010 for an estimated $275 million—says that SessionM will use the new capital to accelerate sales, marketing, product development, talent acquisition, and international expansion.
 
“Our platform is purpose-built to inspire loyalty in consumers as measured by increased frequency, spend, and satisfaction,” says Albright. “That’s made possible through delivering high-impact personalized experiences that are rooted in every customer’s unique data. It’s extremely gratifying when some of the best and most innovative companies in the world look to SessionM to help them solve their most pressing initiatives around personalization and customer engagement.”
 
SessionM’s machine learning tools enable its clients to deliver targeted, personalized experiences and analyze in-store behavior in real time. The platform organizes customers’ data into profiles, which it separates into segments and ranks by purchase propensity. Barneys New York, TGI Fridays, Kimberly-Clark, and L’Oréal have already taken advantage of SessionM’s tools.
 
In addition, Huggies leverages SessionM’s product suite to deliver tips to parents based on their purchase history. For example, as their kids grow into larger diaper sizes, they get emails containing information on how to baby-proof the house or what educational tools they should use. Furthermore, Chicken Salad Chick, a Southern fast-casual restaurant chain, uses SessionM to drive business to underperforming markets.
 
Total Offer Management, one of SessionM’s newest offerings, delivers custom offers across in-store, mobile, web, email, and push notification channels. In April, TGI Fridays tapped it to relaunch its customer loyalty program. For example, instead of static rewards (e.g., “Earn a free salad after 10 visits”), customers rack up in-store and digital points by engaging with the brand on social media and by participating in surveys.
 
The Salesforce investment doesn’t come as a huge surprise. Salesforce participated in a $35 million SessionM funding round in 2016. In addition, in June, the startup announced an integration with three of Salesforce’s products—Marketing Cloud, Commerce Cloud, and Service Cloud—that gives retailers a unified customer view, with metrics such as customer lifetime value and recommended offers.
 
“At Salesforce, we invest in companies bringing cutting-edge solutions to our customer base,” says Matt Garratt, managing partner at Salesforce Ventures. “SessionM and Salesforce’s joint customers have achieved great success, and I am excited for this traction to continue in the quarters ahead.”
 
 

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