Business-to-business marketing firm Demandbase recently closed a $30 million round of venture capital funding, and says it will use the new capital infusion to expand overseas.
The Silicon Valley-based company provides account-based marketing technology that automates three processes: identifying strong sales prospects, personalizing the message delivered to potential buyers and notifying sales representatives when it’s time to sell to a particular customer.
The cloud-based technology, which Demandbase client companies access through a web browser, is designed to connect easily to other business software, including customer relationship, content management and marketing automation systems. That integration is designed to pull information on customer buying history and likely purchases, then send out automated, targeted display ads to ad networks and also generate other forms of marketing campaigns. “We identify and target accounts that are going to make the most impact on business,” Demandbase chief marketing officer Peter Isaacson says.
More than 300 customers use the Demandbase software, including General Electric Co., HSBC Holdings plc and Dell Inc., he says.
Demandbase declines to disclose what it charges for its software. But its value lies in its ability to focus and personalize the B2B marketing message, says Penny Gillespie, an e-commerce analyst at technology research and advisory firm Gartner Inc. Demandbase is not alone in the market, she adds.
“Demandbase might already have a head start in the B2B space,” she says. “But there are over 40 vendors offering personalization engines and doing something similar with consumers—starting with search and going to transaction completion and service. Some already [are] starting to branch into B2B.” Other vendors offering B2B account-based marketing software include Terminus Software LLC and Evergage Inc.
Demandbase is also looking to grow in Europe and Asia, where it figures its focus on marketing to companies rather than to consumers will let it steer clear of a number of national laws on the use of personally identifiable information for consumers, Isaacson says. “We’re not targeting the individual, we’re targeting the company,” he says.
The $30 million in funding brings its total funding to more than $90 million, Demandbase says. This round was led by Sageview Ventures. Also participating were prior investors Adobe Systems Inc., Altos Ventures, Costanoa Venture Capital, Greenspring Associates, Salesforce.com Ventures, Scale Venture Partners and Sigma West.
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