Company will accelerate investments in its platform, partnerships and people to support marketers through digital transformation and Martech modernization
From the very start, Movable Ink has embraced the philosophy of capital efficiency. With this investment, the company will continue to deploy capital efficiently and strategically in platform innovations including ongoing R&D in new channels and AI.
Movable Ink, the leading software company powering creative personalization for the world’s largest brands, today announced it has raised $30 million in a Series C funding round with capital from Contour Venture Partners, Intel Capital and Silver Lake Waterman. Movable Ink has raised $39 million in funding to date.
Since its founding in 2010, Movable Ink has empowered more than 700 of the world’s most innovative brands to generate creative that is data-activated and contextually relevant at the time of engagement across email, mobile and web. The company’s core automation and operational tools are well-positioned to meet the rapidly changing needs of marketers brought about by COVID-19.
“We founded Movable Ink nearly ten years ago with a vision to empower marketers with data-inspired creativity. A lot has changed over a decade in digital marketing but never so fast and dramatically as what’s happened during the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Vivek Sharma, CEO of Movable Ink. “Brands across multiple industries have accelerated digital transformation initiatives, many of which have been in progress for years. We remain deeply committed to supporting our clients through this time and helping them enter and embrace a new digital future.”
From the very start, Movable Ink has embraced the philosophy of capital efficiency. With this investment, the company will continue to deploy capital efficiently and strategically in platform innovations including ongoing R&D in new channels and AI. The company will also continue to expand on its extensive partner ecosystem within the Movable Ink Exchange, a marketplace of partner integrations that work seamlessly with the Movable Ink platform to unlock data from a brand’s existing martech investments. Additionally, Movable Ink will expand into new geographic markets and continue to provide ongoing support for clients with a dedicated team of senior strategists across retail, financial services, travel & hospitality, media & tech and other key industries.
“Movable Ink continues to drive impressive results. The technical innovation combined with the team’s strategic business decisions and amazing execution over the years have enabled the company to become a leading marketing SaaS company with global traction, as well as attract the industry’s best and brightest talent,” said Matt Gorin, Managing Partner and co-founder at Contour Venture Partners. “As Movable Ink’s first institutional investor I have had a front row seat to the great vision and product execution from the beginning that has enabled the company’s products to become an essential part of a marketer’s stack. We could not be more excited about how the Movable Ink platform will continue to evolve and deliver a strong ROI for our customers.”
“As an early investor in Movable Ink, it is great to see the team continue to deliver tremendous value for brands and consumers. What they do is even more important now that brands are seeking new ways to stay close to customers in these challenging times,” said Dave Flanagan, vice president and senior managing director, Intel Capital. “We are excited to see Movable Ink continue to empower marketers to create compelling visual experiences across digital channels, driven by data to provide personalized content and engagement for customers.”
Company momentum and areas of continued investments in platform, partners and people include:
Movable Ink Mobile
Movable Ink continues its innovation in the mobile channel with new personalization use cases for in-app messages and push notifications.
“Mobile is an important part of our strategy to keep viewers engaged, informed, and entertained,” said Yves Yakoubyan, Senior Director, Retention Marketing & Customer Care from CBS Interactive. “With Movable Ink and Braze, we developed a campaign that activates data through APIs and sends users a push notification with show recommendations. We saw a 39% lift in open rates when we used relevant images leveraging Movable Ink versus our previous text-only notifications.”
Movable Ink Exchange
Movable Ink continues to expand its marketplace of partner solutions and integrations with recent new partners including Oracle Commerce Cloud, MessageGears Engage, Trustpilot and Yotpo.
“Customer reviews are proven to drive brand trust, which is more important than ever for businesses moving into recovery and navigating significant shifts in consumer behavior,” said Peter Simpson, Global Head of Partnerships at Trustpilot. “Being a part of the Movable Ink Exchange and integrated with such a powerful platform enables the brands we work with to maximize the impact of their customer reviews by pulling them into marketing campaigns that result in more loyal and valuable customers.”
New Senior Vice President of People, Katy Huber
Movable Ink welcomed Katy Huber as its new Senior Vice President of People. Formerly Chief People Officer at DAN (Dentsu Aegis Network) Media, Katy brings more than 15 years of experience leading people functions for progressive and fast-paced organizations.
“It’s an exciting time to be joining Movable Ink as it continues to grow and scale both in the US and abroad,” said Katy Huber, Senior Vice President of People at Movable Ink. “I am really looking forward to contributing to what is already a unique and engaged culture. It is a great foundation to build from!”
New Vice President of Artificial Intelligence, Ashutosh Malaviya
Movable Ink welcomed Ashutosh Malaviya as its new Vice President of Artificial Intelligence. Previously, Ashutosh co-founded several startups and held senior AI and Engineering leadership positions at SmartZip Analytics and Yatra Corporation.
“From the first time I learned about the Movable Ink platform, I immediately saw its tremendous long-term potential to leverage AI,” said Ashutosh Malaviya, Vice President of Artificial Intelligence.
International Expansion
After seven years as the market leader and personalization partner to UK brands across key industries, Movable Ink is expanding in EMEA with a specific focus on the Nordics and Benelux.
“Building on Movable Ink’s solid foundation in the UK, we are making inroads into the Nordics and Benelux regions, engaging with many large regional brands across all industries. Our new client Bonnier News is already seeing promising positive results with the ability to drive personalization and marketing innovation at scale,” said Stuart Barker, Vice President EMEA at Movable Ink. “We are building out a team to seize this great opportunity and support growth in these vital regions.”
Industry Recognition
In 2019, for the second year in a row, Movable Ink won AdWeek Reader’s Choice: Best of Tech Award for the “Martech: Marketing Cloud/Automation” category amidst a competitive field including Adobe and Salesforce.
SOC 2 Compliance
Privacy, security and compliance are core to everything Movable Ink does. As part of that commitment, the company has achieved SOC 2 Type 2 compliance. SOC 2 compliance is a component of the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA)’s Service Organization Control reporting platform. Its goal is to make sure that security measures are well-designed and operating effectively over time to protect the Movable Ink platform and especially customer data.
“Our SOC 2 certification reinforces Movable Ink’s serious commitment to, and investment in, data security, privacy and compliance,” said Lee Bankewitz, Senior Vice President of Engineering at Movable Ink. “SOC 2 provides our clients and partners with peace of mind by giving them a way to independently verify our security standards.”
About Movable Ink
Movable Ink empowers digital marketers to generate creative that is data-activated and contextually relevant at the time of engagement across email, mobile and web. More than 700 of the world’s most innovative brands rely on Movable Ink’s platform to automate the creation of unique on-brand experiences for each consumer at every moment. With more than 300 employees, the company is headquartered in New York City with offices in San Francisco, Chicago, and London. Learn more at movableink.com.
About Contour Venture Partners
Contour Venture Partners, founded in 2005, is a New York City based seed stage venture capital firm. Contour invests in early stage companies that provide innovative software solutions into the enterprise SaaS, financial services and vertical B2B SaaS sectors, with a focus on New York City. Contour has a long and successful investment track record, having invested in over 70 companies through numerous market cycles. For more information about Contour Venture Partners visit: http://www.contourventures.com.
About Intel Capital
Intel Capital invests in innovative startups targeting artificial intelligence, autonomous technology, data center and cloud, 5G, next-generation compute, and a wide range of other disruptive technologies. Since 1991, Intel Capital has invested US$12.9 billion in more than 1,582 companies worldwide, and 692 portfolio companies have gone public or participated in a merger or acquisition. Intel Capital curates thousands of business development introductions each year between its portfolio companies and the Global 2000. For more information on what makes Intel Capital one of the world’s most powerful venture capital firms, visit http://www.intelcapital.com or follow @Intelcapital.
About Silver Lake Waterman
Silver Lake Waterman is part of Silver Lake, the global leader in technology investing with over $40 billion in combined assets under management and committed capital and a team of approximately 100 investment and value creation professionals located in Silicon Valley, New York, London and Hong Kong. Silver Lake Waterman focuses on providing flexible expansion capital to later-stage growth companies in the technology and technology-enabled industries. For more information about Silver Lake Waterman and Silver Lake, please visit http://www.silverlake.com.