Developing a software that tracks user behavior across apps and websites, and generates targeted marketing emails for those users has garnered the San Diego-based technology company Cordial $6 million in new funding.
The San Diego-based company is founded by a team of longtime email marketing professionals and was backed by Upfront Ventures in this Series A round. The company is also a graduate of R/GA’s Connected Commerce Accelerator.
Kobie Fuller, a partner at Upfront and previous investor in the email marketing service ExactTarget, will take a seat on the company’s board.
After a buying spree from companies like Salesforce.com, Oracle, Adobe and IBM around email marketing in 2013 with Oracle and Salesforce.com alone spending $4 billion in two acquisitions (Oracle’s $1.5 billion spent for Responsys and Salesforce.com buying ExactTarget in a $2.5 billion deal); a host of new entrants are trying to enter the market with services that further automate marketing messages. And Cordial wants to position itself at the center of those offerings.
The company is also billing itself as the go-to vendor that will understand (read track) a potential customer’s behavior on all of the connected devices they use (like those Amazon Echos, Google Homes and every other internet-connected thing in a home or office).
Co-founded by a team including chief executive Jeremy Swift and chief technology officer Adam Gillespie (who sold the email marketer BlueHornet to Digital River), along with chief operating officer David Baker, a former vice president of Digital Impact/Axciom, Cordial’s management has long been involved in the email marketing world.
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“Investing in Cordial was easy for us. At its core, Cordial is the most adaptive messaging platform, built for this ever-evolving connected age. It is led by a team of pioneers with the same high standards, enthusiasm and desire to make great ideas happen — which is what made them all marketers in the first place,” said Fuller in a statement.
