Singapore marketing SaaS player raises $32m
US-based technology investor Riverwood Capital has led a $32 million Series C round for Insider, a Singapore software start-up that helps companies develop better targeted marketing campaigns.
Sequoia Capital India, Dubai-based Wamda Capital, and Endeavor, a non-profit organization that focuses on high-impact entrepreneurs, also took part, Insider said in a statement. The company was founded in Istanbul in 2012 and moved to Singapore three years ago to be closer to Asia’s high-growth markets. Sequoia led a $11 million Series B round in 2018.
Insider’s core software-as-a-service (SaaS) product – which was launched around the time it closed the Series B – is a platform that covers the entire marketing process, from customer acquisition and activation through retention and revenue generation. The company claims to use artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities to deliver real-time predictive segmentation, facilitating the creation of customized offerings across different media channels.
The business model is driven by the need for greater efficiency in marketing expenditure. With the advent of the public cloud, customer acquisition replaced infrastructure and talent as the biggest cost items for companies pursuing growth through digitization. Smaller companies cannot afford complex in-house systems that ensure marketing budgets are aimed at the right customers, so Insider positions itself as a one-stop outsourcing solution based on a unified data layer.
The company works with more than 800 clients, including Samsung, Carrefour, and Uniqlo, Singapore Airlines, Toyota and Virgin. It has staff covering 24 countries from offices in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. US expansion is a priority.
Hande Cilingir, Insider’s co-founder and CEO, told TechCrunch that the company's AI capabilities differentiate it from larger competitors like Salesforce. It can integrate customer data from different marketing channels – online and offline – to help companies make more accurate predictions regarding customer behavior.
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