Insider announces $32 million Series C funding to invest in AI

The co-founders and CEOs of Insider

The additional capital will be used to further enhance the award-winning platform’s capabilities, add top-tier engineers to Insider’s exceptional research and development (R&D) team, and invest in the company’s global sales and marketing efforts.

Most digital marketers face the same problem: there are too many tools that claim to be “multichannel” and provide a “hub.” Instead, it is the case that customer data sits in silos, sales channels remain under-developed or even unavailable, and the end product is a point-solution rather than a true hub. This creates disjointed experiences for consumers and hinders marketing ROI.

Insider’s AI-powered platform enables enterprise marketers to connect customer data across channels and systems, predict their future behaviour with an AI-powered intent engine, and orchestrate and deliver individualised experiences to customers. Their platform is unique in how it offers the widest set of product features in the market while coordinating all offline and online data across the unified platform and its various engagement channels. The powerful AI intent engine consists of 15+ algorithms that enable marketers to make precise predictions such as which customer segments are likely to convert, buy, and churn – and then design the most optimised experiences accordingly.

Insider’s channel integrations take minutes, not months – reducing dependency on internal IT teams. Ultimately, Insider enables digital marketers to drive growth across channels, and throughout the funnel from acquisition to activation, revenue and retention (AARR) – thereby impacting ROI metrics such as conversion rate, CAC, LTV, and average order value.

Insider is trusted by more than 800 global enterprise brands, including industry powerhouses such as UNIQLO, Singapore Airlines, Marks & Spencer, Estée Lauder, Virgin, Samsung, Carrefour, Dominos, Toyota, Newsweek, Avon, MediaMarkt, AVIS, Allianz, BBVA, IKEA, and CNN. With teams on the ground in 24 countries, Insider ensures deep localisation and unparalleled support for their clients.

Insider CEO and co-founder Hande Cilingir explained that as a profitable company they did not want to raise capital too soon but continued to receive strong inbound interest from VCs.

“We’ve only raised capital when we felt that we were ready to raise the bar to a whole new level. A self-imposed scarcity always made us more creative, more resourceful and more aggressive in reaching our goals.”

“So far, we’ve focused on leading in high-potential markets in the eastern part of the world. We’ve partnered with industry powerhouses like Samsung, Uniqlo, and Singapore Airlines in APAC as well as Qantas in Australia, and Marks & Spencer, Estee Lauder, and Carrefour in Europe. We plan to grow substantially in our existing 24 countries and we are now ready to enter the US market and believe that our fresh solutions to marketers’ biggest pain points will be a major differentiator,” added Cilingir.

The beginning of the pandemic saw a rapid surge in demand for e-commerce and media companies worldwide. Insider’s agile digital sales team was well-positioned to turn this increasing traffic into conversions by helping their partners respond to "net new digital behaviours" in real time. In the post-COVID-19 market, brands will need to digitise more than ever. As online consumption increases and shoppers start reprioritising their postponed purchases, Insider expects to continue its accelerated levels of growth.

Insider has been recently featured in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Multichannel Marketing Hubs 2020 and became the No.1 leader on G2Crowd’s Mobile Marketing Software Grid with a 4.7/5 rating based on 100 per cent user reviews, 14 quarters in a row. Insider’s co-founder and CEO Hande Cilingir was selected as one of the top women CEOs outside of the US by Crunchbase.