AI Marketing Platform Hightouch Reaches Unicorn Status After $80M Series C

Marketing and personalization startup Hightouch locked up an $80 million Series C led by Sapphire Ventures, minting it as a new unicorn at a $1.2 billion valuation.

The round also includes participation from NVC, Iconiq Growth, Amplify Partners, Bain Capital Ventures and Y Combinator. Founded in 2018, the company has raised $172 million, per Crunchbase.

The San Francisco-based startup plans to use the money to push its new platform that is powered by — what else? — artificial intelligence. Hightouch’s AI Decisioning product allows marketers to synchronize data and then let AI agents decide what messages and/or experiences to send each customer — personalizing the marketing effort.

The company more than doubled its revenue last year while adding large enterprise customers like PetSmart and Weight Watchers.

“We’ve talked about 1:1 personalization for years, but it’s not possible with the way marketers work today. …” said co-founder and co-CEO Tejas Manohar in a release. “Our vision is to use AI to help marketers break free of manual work. Instead of building rigid calendars and static journeys that are inherently impersonal, marketers can simply enter goals like ‘drive repeat purchases and subscriptions’ and let AI agents decide what to do next at a 1:1 level. It’s a reimagining of the job of being a marketer.”

Marketing AI

AI has had a profound effect on many sectors like biotech and cybersecurity, as many startups have added the technology to their platforms. Marketing is no exception, as Hightouch is only the most recent marketing tech startup to get funding.

Just last week, Toronto-based StackAdapt raised a $235 million growth round led by Teachers’ Venture Growth — the late-stage venture and growth investment arm of Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan. The startup has a multichannel programmatic advertising platform that uses AI and automation to help with digital marketing efforts.

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Illustration: Dom Guzman