Technology

Posted on September 24, 2019 by staff

Marketing firm Ometria raises $21m for AI advancements

Technology

Retail customer marketing platform Ometria has raised $21m in Series B funding.

The London firm will use the funds to innovate its AI tech, which it said enables retailers to better understand and better communicate with their customers.

The round was led by Octopus Ventures, with Sonae IM and a number of other investors participating as well.

Since its $6m Series A funding round the firm has expanded its client base to 200 retailers, including Hotel Chocolat, Fred Perry, MADE.com and Notonthehighstreet.com.

It was recently named the ninth fastest-growing technology company in the UK in the Deloitte Fast 50.

Founded in 2013 by serial entrepreneurs Alastair James, Djalal Lougouev, James Dunford Wood and CEO Ivan Mazour, the firm hopes to cut down on irrelevant and unwanted customer messages.

“Junk mail through our letterboxes has now been replaced by a deluge of messages and notifications, whether through email, text, WhatsApp, Instagram or a dozen other channels,” explained Mazour.

It’s relentless and must be addressed. Retail marketing contributes heavily to this, with most marketing experiences leading to frustrated and disengaged consumers.”

“I’m proud that Ometria solves this ever-increasing problem for hundreds of millions of customers, and I encourage the retail industry to use the technology now available to them to ensure that their customers have marketing experiences they truly love”.

The firm said it was founded on the idea that marketers need to take responsibility for the impact of every communication they send.

“We want our customers to discover amazing new products, but we also want to make sure that they do that through marketing experiences they enjoy” said Jennifer Roebuck, CMO at Europe’s largest online beauty retailer and Ometria customer Feelunique.com.

Marieke Christmann, an investor at Octopus Ventures, said: “Ometria will use this investment to revolutionise the retail marketing industry with its AI capabilities. We want to see entrepreneurs put their customers at the heart of the business and that is precisely what the team is doing.

Octopus Ventures looks forward to being part of the innovative team behind Ometria and we are excited to work with them as it expand on its international capabilities into the US.”

Eduardo Piedade, Sonae IM’s CEO, added, “We are thrilled to continue to support Ometria in this new phase of growth. We know from our experience how important it is to provide a personalised marketing experience and Ometria’s solution plays a key role in solving this problem for retailers”.