CMO's top 8 martech stories for the week - 20 February 2020

Habu marketing data operations platform launches

Marketing platform startup Habu, has launched with the aim of helping brands build a durable data foundation and deliver cross-channel personalisation with consumer privacy front and centre. 

After piloting with several global CPG and Fortune 500 brands for the last six months, Habu comes out of stealth with US$15 million in Series A funding, led by super{set} and with participation from select investors.

Created by former Salesforce executives and Krux founders, Habu is billed as being a solution for enriching, activating and automating first-party data with a privacy focus. The vendor said Habu is about helping brands be compliant with privacy regulations a such as GDPR and CCPA as well as consumer preferences, and offers both a modular platform and interoperability with other existing marketing systems. 

Habu CEO and co-founder, Matt Kilmartin, who was formerly chief customer officer of Salesforce’s Consumer Engagement Platform, said the platform is a direct response to CMOs under pressure to improve customer engagement.

"Habu resolves the privacy-personalisation paradox with automated privacy controls, personalisation at scale, and first-party data growth options,” he said. 

Yet the company has reportedly been quick to distinguish itself from the customer data platform (CDP) category, instead labelling itself a 'marketing data operating system'.

Databook secures US$5 million seed funding 

There's also a new artificial intelligence (AI)-powered, enterprise customer intelligence platform on the block.

Databook has secured a US$5 million seed round this week led by Threshold Ventures. The funding will be used to scale Databook's product and go-to-market teams to tackle the customer intelligence market, projected by MarketWatch at US$5 billion by 2022.

The Databook customer intelligence platform combines predictive intent data, real-time insights and time-saving productivity tools to improve selling performance across the enterprise. Databook is designed to identify which accounts to prioritise, and which buying groups have pain and urgency, and then automatically builds a hyper-personalised point of view to engage the customer.

Aimia loyalty solutions' platform now available on Microsoft Azure

Global loyalty provider, Aimia Loyalty Solutions, has announced its Aimia Loyalty Platform (ALP) SaaS is now available on Microsoft Azure.

As part of its work with Microsoft, Aimia has integrated its ALP SaaS environment with Azure to accelerate its scalability and reach for brands seeking a dynamic customer loyalty management platform. Accessed through Azure, clients will benefit from streamlined deployment and enhanced platform management, the company said.

WPP acquires marketing technology consultancy

WPP's Wunderman Thompson arm has acquired XumaK, a premier marketing technology consultancy.

XumaK implements performance-driven commerce solutions. A provider of Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) software and services, XumaK manages, delivers and optimises experiences across every digital touchpoint.

The acquisition is in line with WPP’s strategy to deepen its technology offer and invest behind its partnerships with leading technology companies. XumaK will drive the experience technology capability for Wunderman Thompson North America. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Upland Software acquires Localytics

Upland Software, which specialises in cloud-based enterprise work management software, has acquired Localytics, a provider of mobile app personalisation and analytics solutions.

With Localytics, Upland said its Customer Experience Management (CXM) Cloud offers rich mobile experiences, personalisation and real-time sentiment analysis across every digital channel, including text, mobile app, browser, wallet, voice and email.

Localytics aims to deliver deep insights into consumer behaviour within mobile app experiences and provide the foundation for campaigns that convert better and drive customer loyalty. Localytics’ support for interactions with consumers across push, in-app, inbox, and remarketing combined with rich audience segmentation allows marketers to deliver personalised app experiences with high consumer relevance.

Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Rakuten launches Rakuten Advertising

Rakuten has unified its various media properties, advertising technologies and consumer insights and rebranded the business Rakuten Advertising.

The new company brings together Rakuten Marketing’s expansive affiliate network, programmatic retargeting and prospecting technology with consumer insights from Rakuten Intelligence, and a unique set of global media properties. The aim is to help brands discover rich audiences and build enduring relationships including Rakuten TV, Rakuten Viber, Rakuten Viki and Rakuten France.

The company is pitching the new division as the largest global performance marketing network in the industry, operating in more than 200 countries and regions around the world.

Facebook reportedly buys AR startup 

Facebook has reportedly bought augmented reality (AR) startup, Scape Technologies, in a deal said to be worth around US$40 million.

Founded in 2017, UK-based Scape Technologies is building a one-to-one scale digital map of the physical world and has developed a ‘Visual Positioning Service’ (VPS), which creates 3D maps from images and video and enables devices to find a location through the VPS with more accuracy than just GPS. The aim is to enable AR across the physical world.

The social media giant has confirmed the deal with publication, Engadget, but further details have not been disclosed.

Seismic builds new alliances in A/NZ

Sales enablement vendor, Seismic, has teamed up with Artis group and McCorkell & Associates in a new alliance aimed at improving B2B sales processes.

The trio are joining forces to combine Seismic’s sales and marketing enablement technology platform with McCorkell’s content and Artis Group’s martech consulting services. The services are targeted at enterprise and mid-sized organisations.

Seismic strategic alliances director for APAC, Hydar Al Ammar, said today’s world saw both sale and marketing directly responsible for revenue performance.

“To help organisations stay ahead in these market shifts, we have teamed up with McCorkell and Artis to create an integrated, end-to-end consulting alliance that addressed the challenges of CMOs and customer experience leaders.”

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