This week in MarTech: Cision acquires Brandwatch, Exponea and Acxiom announce a data integration, Zeta Global raises $222.5 million in debt financing, Blueshift takes home $30 million, Terminus raises $90 million, Otter.ai raises $50 million, Lexer brings home $33.5 million, Jellyfish acquires 5 new companies, and BrandMaker secures a strategic investment.
Cision Acquires Brandwatch for $450 Million
It's been a busy week, so let’s jump into the big story. Cision acquires Brandwatch for a cool $450 million.
Brandwatch will bring their online customer intelligence and social media listening platform to Cision’s media contact database of approximately 1 million journalists and media outlets. Social listening is booming as brands look to better understand new consumer habits in a pandemic world.
Zeta Global Raises $222.5 Million in Debt Financing
This week we've seen a whole host of CDP news popping off. First up, Zeta Global raises $222.5 million in debt financing.
The company’s previous loans have been used to finance acquisitions and integrations, whereas this latest cash injection will focus on innovation for its customer data platform.
Lexer Raises $33.5 Million
Next up, it’s another CDP story from across the pond as Lexer, the Melbourne-made customer data platform brings home $33.5 million.
The cash injection led by Blackbird Ventures and King River Capital brings the company's total funding to $43 million. Lexer plan to inject the latest cash into their global expansion.
Blueshift Raises $30 Million
And more in the CDP space with Blueshift raising $30 million from their latest Series C funding round. Blueshift plan to expand to more markets beyond the US and Europe and further expand their technology capabilities.
“The product already has a unified format, to ingest data from multiple sources and redistribute that out to apps. Now, we want to distribute that data to more last-mile applications,” - Blue shift Co-founder and CEO, Vijay Chittoor.
Exponea and Acxiom Announce a Data Integration
Plus a final bit of CDP news for you, this time in the form of a partnership, as Exponea and Acxiom announce a data integration. The newfound partnership enables the clients of Exponea to access Acxiom’s data hygiene and data enrichment services via API.
Terminus Raises $90 Million
In other funding news, ABM platform Terminus raises $90 million at its latest Series C from Boston-based Great Hill Partners with participation from existing investors Atlanta Ventures, Edison Partners and Hallett Capital. The investment by Great Hill Partners brings Terminus’ total funding to $125M.
Terminus plan to pour the funds into continued growth and product innovation.
Otter.ai Raises $50 Million
In other news, voice transcription service, Otter.ai raises $50 million.
Over the past year, Otter.ai have adapted quickly to remote working opportunities brought about by the pandemic as they introduced integrations with apps like Zoom and Google Meet back in April 2020. And the hard work has paid off as the company’s revenue skyrocketed 800% in 2020 as Otter saw adoption in more than than 230 countries.
Jellyfish Acquires 5 New Companies
In our next story, the agency Jellyfish acquires 5 new companies to fuel global expansion. The new acquisitions under their belt include Seelk, Splash, Quill, Webedia Brand Services and Data Runs Deep.
The company represents a new kind of digital business, where agency services are combined with consultancy, training, and technologies to deliver the best possible outcomes for clients.
BrandMaker Secures a Strategic Investment
And finally, BrandMaker has secured a strategic majority investment from Rubicon Technology Partners. The investment will accelerate BrandMaker's global growth strategy, particularly in North America through continued product innovation and go-to-market expansion.
MarTech News Weekly Round-up – over and out.
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