MarTech News: Round-Up 04/08/22

This Week in Martech:

💰 Klaviyo Raises $100M ⚙️ Cynthia.Io Launches On-Demand AI Platform 💰 Balance Raises $56M 💰 Fexa Raises $40M ⚙️ Bain & Company Debuts NPSx ⚙️ Oracle Announces Next Gen Fusion Sales 💰 Cordial Secures $50M 👥 Gap Partners with DOGAMI 👥 Pitney Bowes and Narvar Launch Partnership

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Klaviyo Raises $100M

E-commerce marketing automation platform Klaviyo has raised $100M in strategic investment from Shopify. This coincided with the announcement that the two companies will strengthen their partnership, through making Klaviyo the recommended email product for Shopify's premium merchant plan. 

“We’ve been working closely with Shopify for years and this is a great next step,” Klaviyo CEO Andrew Bialecki said.

“I’ve talked with their product team and CEO many times — they’re big believers in our mission of empowering creators and they have a lot of respect for the products we’ve built and our customer-first, product-led culture. Shopify’s been key to our growth and a great team to work with and we’re excited that this will help us go faster in helping more of their customers.”

Cynthia.Io Launches On-Demand AI Platform

Cynthia.io, an early-stage technology company providing AI to the business landscape, has announced the launch of its cognitive search platform. The offering is aimed at B2B companies and features e-commerce and bespoke industry applications that allow firms to uncover, analyse, and act to improve product offerings and business intelligence. 

Balance Raises $56M

Balance, a company which supports B2B e-commerce merchants and marketplaces through one-click checkout payment tools, has raised $56M in Series B funding, led by Forerunner. This is only a year after its $25M Series A funds, led by Ribbit Capital. 

Fexa Raises $40M

Mainsail, who invests in bootstrapped software companies, has invested $40M in Fexa, a provider of solutions for facility maintenance departments and service providers. 

Fexa plans to use the capital to accelerate the development of product features, enhance integration capabilities, and broaden industry partnerships. 

Bain & Company Debuts NPSx

Bain & Company has launched NPSx, a CX training and certification. The course includes:

  • CX and Net Promoter Score fundamentals
  • Customer insights and analytics
  • Earned growth and customer economics
  • Customer experience design
  • CX build and execution

Oracle Announces Next-Gen Fusion Sales

Oracle has announced the launch of its AI-powered Oracle Fusion Sales, as part of the Oracle Fusion Cloud Customer Experience. This offering generates automatic recommendations for the last steps to closing deals, including quotes and proposals. 

Cordial Secures $50M

Cordial, a cross-channel marketing and data management platform, has raised $50< in a Series C venture round. Newspring led the round, which also saw participation from new investor ABS Capital. This brings Cordial's total funding to $85M, including funding from previous investors High Alpha and Upfront Ventures. 

Gap Partners with DOGAMI

Gap, the clothing brand, has formalised its partnership with DOGAMI, a play-to-earn blockchain pet game based on complete ownership of 3D NFT pets, for the release of exclusive pet-themed NFTs.

The dogs can be dressed in Gap-branded outfits as part of this collaboration. DOGAMI players will be able to bid on and use the NFTs in three-item bindles to boost their game performance. 

Pitney Bowes and Narvar Launch Partnership

Pitney Bowes, a shipping and mailing company that provides technology, logistics and financial services has partnered with Narvar, a post-purchase customer experience company. The companies hope the joint partnership will help retail brands streamline their processes for merchandise returns.

“Post-purchase processes—and returns in particular—are not only significant cost centers for ecommerce brands, but are becoming even more complex due to supply chain disruption and the macroeconomic landscape,” said Amit Sharma, CEO at Narvar.

“The combination of Narvar’s post-purchase experience platform and Pitney Bowes’ ecommerce logistics capabilities will dramatically accelerate a retailer’s transition to a more personalized and efficient returns model, while simultaneously saving brands money and improving the customer experience.”

MarTech News Round-up – over and out.

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