Solution Provides Foundational AI Infrastructure for Marketers to Personalize Messaging at Scale

Aampe, the AI-native user engagement platform, today announced a $7.5 million Pre-Series A funding round led by Matrix Partners India and Peak XV Partners (formerly Sequoia Capital India & SEA). The new capital will support product development and fuel growth as the company continues its rapid global expansion.

Over the last several years, the marketing industry has grappled with the opportunities presented by personalization and the challenges associated with properly implementing it. Today, managing customer relationships suffers from the inefficiencies created by traditional, manual processes. Within CRM systems, marketers must manually segment user populations, build user journeys with minimal guidance, and perform labor-intensive A/B tests.

By redesigning what was traditionally a one-way communication to users, Aampe turns an app's marketing messaging into a personalized experience through agentic AI that tracks and adapts to each user's individual responses, clicks, and subsequent actions in response to each message they receive. Marketers can then collect the insights gained about users within a simple dashboard to understand individual user preferences, behaviors, and motivations.

Aampe automates content creation, experimental design, and conversion tracking, among other uses. Improving those marketing processes significantly boosts user engagement and conversion rates while reducing the time and effort required to manage traditional rules-based systems.

“AI dramatically alters how we build software, making the older 'rules engine' generation of software increasingly obsolete,” said Paul Meinshausen, co-founder and CEO of Aampe. “Marketers have been forced to define rigid paths for their users that ignore their individuality and diversity. Generic segmentation leads to frustration, reduced engagement, and slower growth. Aampe has created a way for CRM AI agents to iteratively learn user preferences and then adapt and respond to those preferences optimally, unlocking the benefits that better customer experience provides.”

With its latest funding, Aampe has now raised a total of $9.3 million since its founding in 2020. Aampe currently serves over 50 million users each month, delivering impactful results for a diverse range of customers, such as HAAT, IntelyCare, PayU, Swiggy, and ZALORA, among others, and is growing its customer base across Asia, Europe, and North America.

From gaming to eCommerce and subscription apps to FinTechs, Aampe's customers have garnered strong results by using Aampe's AI-driven approach to customer lifecycle management. Customers have reported a 30% increase in new user conversions, a 4x increase in customer retention, and hundreds of thousands of dollars in savings on SMS spending through more efficient messaging, with no reduction in messaging performance. In the first eight months of 2023, Aampe's MRR grew at a compound monthly growth rate of 32%.

“Customer engagement and marketing technology has been an early beneficiary of advances in AI and machine learning, and Aampe is a clear front runner in enabling organizations to adopt personalized and result-oriented communication to drive growth,” said Aakash Kumar, Managing Director of Matrix Partners India. “We’re delighted to lead this round to support a team that is best placed to build the next generation of an AI-native customer engagement stack for businesses and keenly look forward to collaborating with them as they scale up.”

“As the world switches from growth at all costs to profitable growth with a solid unit economics profile, the way users are engaged and retained inside an application world has become more important than ever,” said Anandamoy Roychowdhary, Partner - Surge, Peak XV Partners. “Aampe builds a fantastic product that has seen their customers significantly improve retention numbers. The users of these apps have much better outcomes as well. I’m excited for Aampe to take this great product to a lot more customers.”

Survey finds data accuracy, global coverage and compliance requirements top the list of business verification challenges

Trulioo, a leading global identity verification platform, today announced new research revealing that 79% of responding organizations have experienced business identity theft, which involves defrauding, extorting or stealing money from a company.

The findings stem from the Trulioo September 2023 “Global Know Your Business (KYB) Survey,” which includes responses from 705 banking, trading, payments, online marketplace, health care and government professionals. More than 50% of respondents report annual sales revenue exceeding $500 million, and a majority (65%) verify more than 100 businesses per month.

A third (34%) of respondents report dissatisfaction with their current business verification vendor. Participating firms cite data accuracy, global coverage and compliance requirements as the top 3 challenges they face in conducting business verification. The dynamic business landscape also ranked high as a challenge for large global companies.

The business fraud threat is driving urgency in the verification market, with more than 75% of respondents indicating they will likely invest in such solutions within the next year.

KYB solutions help organizations address business verification challenges while weeding out false positives and negatives. Trulioo helps organizations increase digital trust by enabling fast, secure and accurate merchant and supplier onboarding, submitter verification and watchlist screening.

“Our global KYB survey shows that 79% of companies have been affected by business identity theft,” said Michael Ramsbacker, Trulioo chief product officer. “Fraudsters all too often find an open door by using stolen business identities. To address this increasing attack vector, the Trulioo platform allows our customers to deploy onboarding workflows that verify the user submitting the business information is affiliated with the business. Trulioo provides multilayered business verification and global data sources, all through one platform, to help organizations thwart those fraud threats and achieve compliance in countries around the world.”

The Trulioo platform distills complex, multisource business data into precise, actionable results with risk and fraud signals that enable nuanced decision-making. The platform enables organizations to quickly and confidently verify business customers to fuel secure expansion into new markets.

Alpine IQ unveils Surveys, a groundbreaking feature that aims to bridge the gap between businesses and their customers, as well as foster internal communication within teams. This tool not only amplifies the customer voices but also offers a comprehensive platform for businesses to create, manage, and analyze feedback.

The Surveys tool allows businesses to craft tailored surveys to gather invaluable feedback on various topics. These encompass areas such as customer experience, product assortment, pricing strategies, promotions, and operational facets. What sets this feature apart is its ability to target and dispatch surveys to the appropriate audience, ensuring high response rates and gathering valuable insights.

This initiative demonstrates Alpine IQ's dedication to nurturing a culture of ongoing improvement and feedback within organizations. Moreover, the feature facilitates the collection of product reviews based on customers' purchase histories, guaranteeing authentic and relevant feedback.

Nicholas Paschal, co-founder, and CEO of Alpine IQ said, "At Alpine IQ, we prioritize listening to both our customers and our internal teams. The Surveys feature embodies our unwavering commitment to innovation and continuous enhancement."

Surveys offer a seamless experience for businesses. Within an intuitive interface, creating a survey is straightforward, allowing users to set its duration and provide essential details. The platform ensures brand consistency with customizable content and design flexibility. A variety of question types cater to diverse feedback needs, with responses stored in the Persona profile for precise audience segmentation. Additionally, the share tab facilitates easy distribution, whether standalone or integrated with campaigns. Once collected, businesses benefit from detailed insights, with options to view individual question data or download responses for in-depth analysis.

With the Surveys feature, Alpine IQ is poised to transform the manner in which businesses collect and leverage feedback. This ensures they remain efficient, prioritize their customers, and maintain a competitive edge.

Bloomreach’s customers can now benefit from the fast ROI of AI-driven search and content management solutions

Bloomreach today announced it has launched Bloomreach Search and Discovery Cartridge for B2C Commerce on Salesforce AppExchange, in partnership with digital commerce agency Astound Commerce. With availability on the world’s leading enterprise cloud marketplace, Bloomreach Search and Discovery Cartridge for B2C Commerce will provide customers with new ways to create personalized e-commerce experiences driven by rich data and powerful AI.

Bloomreach solutions enable businesses to drive fast results by connecting every customer with the right product, in the right place, at the right time. Its Discovery app is backed by AI and an extensive e-commerce data set, unlocking smarter, more personalized e-commerce search from the moment of implementation. Its Content app allows businesses to manage storefronts with ease, curating and optimizing the right content and products for their site. Together, these apps empower every business to optimize e-commerce for greater relevance, better customer experiences, and faster revenue growth.

Bloomreach has also worked with Astound Commerce to make its apps available within the agency’s Launch360 accelerator. Launch360 offers out-of-the-box capabilities, design enhancements, and agile integrations for Salesforce businesses, allowing them to quickly build a commerce experience tailored to their unique brand. Through Launch360, businesses will leverage Astound Commerce’s more than 16 years of Salesforce expertise to seamlessly implement Bloomreach solutions.

Comments on the news:

• “Bloomreach Search and Discovery Cartridge for B2C Commerce is a welcome addition to AppExchange, as it accelerates business transformation for customers by driving AI-powered personalization across the online shopping journey,” said Alice Steinglass, Executive Vice President of and General Manager, Platform. “AppExchange is constantly evolving to connect customers with the right apps and experts for their business needs.”
• "Bloomreach's Discovery and Content solutions are market-leading and fuel great outcomes for many of Astound's clients. We are so excited to launch these apps in AppExchange as well as our own Launch360: Composable accelerator," Vanessa Cartwright, CEO of Americas, Astound Commerce.
• “We’re pleased to bring our Discovery and Content apps to Salesforce AppExchange,” said Anand Subbiah, VP of Technical Alliances & Ecosystem Platform, Bloomreach. “This will offer exciting new opportunities for Salesforce customers to seamlessly integrate Bloomreach into their commerce ecosystem, enhancing the experience for their customers and quickly recognizing the ROI of personalization.”

Machine Learning Wrapper Optimization enables one-click A/B testing for Prebid recommendations

Magnite, the world’s largest independent sell-side advertising company, today introduced machine learning driven recommendations for A/B testing within its Demand Manager product. Built on Prebid technology, Demand Manager empowers leading publishers with the tools, insights, and connections to grow revenue across the ever-changing marketplace of ad exchanges, formats, and vendors. This launch marks the introduction of sophisticated machine learning algorithms packaged with existing industry-leading capabilities for publishers to manage their Prebid stack.

The new feature utilizes machine learning to provide automated Prebid optimization recommendations based on Prebid and ad server auction data and session data, with the goal of revenue lift. Publishers can now activate machine generated settings into an A/B test with a single click. Initial tests showed that 80% of wrappers that ran a machine-generated experiment saw an increase in revenue compared to the existing setting.

“Publishers are confronted with a seemingly endless number of daily choices that materially impact revenue. We developed this new feature to eliminate Prebid optimization guesswork while still giving publishers full control,” said Matt Tengler, VP of Product at Magnite. “Infusing A/B testing with machine learning makes it easy for publishers to measure revenue and page performance improvements. This continues to bring publishers innovative tools that focus on revenue and efficiency at the same time.”

“We were excited to test this new Demand Manager feature to see how machine learning could improve our wrapper configurations,” said Ben Elshaw, Director of Operations at LADbible. “We were pleased to see a material rCPM increase following the implementation of the optimization recommendations. Demand Manager's A/B testing functionality combined with machine learning recommendations is a welcome innovation that we hope to see expand in the future."

“After using Demand Manager's new machine learning-driven recommendations for wrapper optimization, we were pleased to see an immediate increase in revenue,” said Lewis Lee, Senior Ad Tech Specialist at REA. “The A/B testing capabilities allow us to customize our wrapper configurations based on data and quickly test more scenarios while minimizing risk. We look forward to testing additional features that utilize machine learning to help us improve our Prebid settings.”

Konect.ai, a pioneering SaaS company at the forefront of conversational AI technology for the automotive retail industry, is thrilled to announce a $5.5 million seed investment from Silverton Partners, a prominent venture capital firm based in Austin, Texas. This investment will fuel Konect.ai's mission to transform the way auto dealerships and auto tech companies engage with their customers through advanced AI-driven communication.

This investment marks a significant milestone for Konect.ai, enabling the company to further its mission of revolutionizing the way auto dealerships and auto tech companies interact with their customers. With features like acquisition lead management, outbound SMS campaigns, and after-hours support, Konect.ai is committed to enhancing the customer experience and helping clients achieve their sales goals.

Cole Kutschinski, President/CEO of Konect.ai, expressed his enthusiasm for the partnership, stating, "This investment from Silverton Partners is a strong validation of our vision and the hard work of our talented team. With this support, we are poised to accelerate our growth and continue to innovate, bringing the most advanced conversational AI products to the automotive retail industry."

Rob Taylor, Operating Partner at Silverton Partners, also shared his thoughts on the investment, saying, "We at Silverton are excited to partner with and support the Konect.ai team as they accelerate their growth. We were drawn not just to the incredible business they have already built, but also to their forward vision of utilizing machine intelligence innovation to create delightful experiences for all parties across the automotive retail ecosystem."

The funds raised will be used to expand Konect.ai's product offerings, enhance research and development, and grow the company's presence in key markets. This investment solidifies Konect.ai's position as a leader in the automotive retail technology sector and sets the stage for continued success.

New Page Strength Metric Shows Highest Correlation to Rankings

Leading the charge in AI-driven SEO innovations for enterprises, seoClarity has launched its latest AI development, Keyword Difficulty, the most reliable way to determine ranking difficulty for any keyword.

Built from the ground up over the last three years, seoClarity's Keyword Difficulty score is based on a brand new metric—seoClarity's Page Strength.

Keyword Difficulty's innovative Page Strength metric goes beyond backlink-counting models and offers a comprehensive evaluation of a page's topical relevance, or page strength.

"seoClarity's approach is significantly different and takes into account everything known about a page to create a composite score called Page Strength," said Mitul Gandhi, seoClarity's Co-founder and Chief Architect.

Page Strength leverages every data point in seoClarity's industry leading Research Grid dataset—keywords, search volume, volatility, SERP features, backlinks and most importantly, on-page content—and applies sophisticated AI to calculate the page strength of every one of the tens of billions of pages across 90+ countries.

"Existing approaches to determining page strength and keyword difficulty using backlinks have shown declining correlation to rankings over the years," Gandhi explained. "In fact, the last study on this showed only a 0.233 correlation."

In contrast, seoClarity's Page Strength shows a correlation of 0.51 to rankings and has been validated multiple times by third-party statistical studies, making it the highest correlation any SEO metric has ever achieved to rankings.

For years, the SEO industry has predominantly relied on backlinks as the primary factor for calculating keyword difficulty. However, search engines have evolved dramatically since the birth of these metrics.

As Duy Nguyen of Google's Search Quality Team recently stated, "Backlinks as a signal have a much less significant impact compared to when Google Search first started out many years ago." Gary Illyes even stated at September's PubCon event that links "aren't even in the top three" of ranking factors.

Mark Traphagan, seoClarity's VP of Training and Product Marketing, highlights the importance of this release, saying, "Given the limitations of the "link factor" approach, Page Strength as the focus for Keyword Difficulty provides a clear and actionable metric for prioritizing topics."

One client, Niall Brooke, an Ecommerce SEO Manager for leading UK and International omni-channel retailer, Matalan, shared, "There's a lot more that goes into how difficult a keyword is to rank for these days; having a complex algorithm worked out for you is really beneficial and a big time-saver."

Program participation signifies Appfire's focus on compliance with EU, UK, and Swiss data privacy standards

Appfire, the leading global provider of software that enhances, extends, and connects the world's leading platforms, such as Atlassian, Microsoft, monday.com, and Salesforce, announced it has been included on the Data Privacy Framework (DPF) participants' list, maintained by the International Trade Administration (ITA) within the US Department of Commerce. Ongoing participation in the program by Appfire's US entities listed among DPF participants signifies to partners, customers, vendors, and employees that Appfire has reliable mechanisms for personal data transfers to the United States from the European Union (EU), United Kingdom (UK), and Switzerland while ensuring data protection that is consistent with EU, UK, and Swiss law.

In today's digitally connected world, data flows and data transfers are critical to an organization's success. For organizations that transfer data between the EU and US, this process has become complex as data privacy regulations have introduced more stringent requirements to ensure compliance. The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), for example, restricts the transfer of data to countries without appropriate levels of data protection comparable to the EU. The EU-US DPF provides US-based organizations with a way to transfer personal data while ensuring data protection consistent with EU law. With this participation, customers and other stakeholders are assured that Appfire is in compliance with EU, US, UK, and Swiss data privacy standards and is able to provide adequate data protection. 

"Becoming a participant of the Data Privacy Framework Program marks a significant milestone in our journey to ensure data privacy and security for every Appfire customer, vendor, partner, and employee," said Appfire General Counsel Christine Alpers. "Instilling a culture of compliance is an important pillar for our team at Appfire. This participation reinforces our commitment to maintaining the gold standard of privacy compliance and supports our mission to promote trust, giving our stakeholders further assurance that we are operating within the boundaries of legal and ethical data handling practices."