Internet marketing startup Insider launches new product, backed by $11 M Series B led by Sequoia India

Internet marketing startup Insider announced yesterday, April 2, that it was launching its new Growth Management Platform (GMP), backed by a US$ 11 million Series B round led by Sequoia India. The startup was founded in 2012 in Istanbul, Turkey, but has grown rapidly since then, and last year moved its corporate headquarters to Singapore following a decision to expand into the Southeast Asian market. Insider previously raised $2.2 million in a Series A round in September 2016; its existing investors Wamda Capital and Dogan Group also took part in the latest funding round.

Insider’s GMP aims to help brands, marketers, and website owners serve dynamic and optimised content to visitors, based on their behaviour and preferences. The platform looks at about 90 parameters – including location, the website users are coming from, the device they are on, etc. – to help determine the users’ preferences and serve content to them accordingly.

Speaking about the platform, Hande Cilingir, CEO and Co-founder of Inside, said, “Customers are demanding more personal, meaningful and smoother experiences, no matter what channel they are on. Delivering a personalized experience to each and every customer at scale increasingly requires robust AI and machine learning technologies...That’s why we have built the first integrated Growth Management Platform, which gives digital marketers a holistic end-to-end capability across the entire growth funnel, from customer Acquisition to Activation, Retention and Revenue. Our aim is to make it easier for digital marketers to take a leading role in driving revenue, growth and loyalty in their organizations. Above all, our mission is to help brands deliver relevant and delightful experiences that are mindful of their customers’ attention and time.”

Since its launch, Insider has rapidly expanded and is now present in 16 locations worldwide, with offices in London, Singapore, Tokyo, Dubai, Moscow, Warsaw, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Istanbul, Kiev, Sydney, Seoul, Ho Chi Minh City, Bangkok, Hong Kong, and Taipei. The platform employs 240 people and counts major companies from a variety of verticals as clients, including Singapore Airlines, Tokopedia, Virgin, Nissan, Huawei, Samsung, Orange, Puma, Newsweek, AVIS, Allianz, BBVA, Dominos, McDonald's, and CNN.

Speaking after the Series B announcement, Pieter Kemps, Principal at Sequoia India (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., said, “We were impressed with Insider’s AI platform, and the profound impact on their customer’s key metrics: lower customer acquisition costs, higher retention, faster growth. These customers quickly started to use more and more products from the Insider platform. That has put Insider on a fast growth trajectory, especially in Asia.”

Hande told TechCrunch that Insider is likely to hit $100 million in annual recurring revenue by the end of 2018, and is positive about the future beyond that. Certainly, digital advertising is a steadily growing sector; eMarketer estimated in 2017 that digital ad spending in Southeast Asia could increase by double digits in the coming year thanks to heavy mobile investments across the Asia-Pacific region. As more and more companies seek ways to generate maximum returns from their digital presence and ad campaigns, Insider will hope to attract them through its new platform. After all, data is king, and custom and tailored user experiences are the big playing field of the future.