10KC Announces $56 Million Investment for New World of Work
10KC, the diversity-founded talent experience platform provider also known as Ten Thousand Coffees, recently received an investment of $56 million, its first institutional raise since the company’s formation in 2014. The investment is from Five Elms Capital, a major growth investor in world-class software businesses that provides capital and resources to help companies accelerate expansion.
The funding will be used mainly to build out 10KC’s product roadmap and further scale the company’s solutions globally, while also going toward strengthening product integrations and advancing solutions, including onboarding, leadership development, and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. The 10KC team also plans to further invest in its own company culture and accelerate hiring efforts to include additional sales roles and hire a vice president of marketing.
The investment comes at a critical time as employees struggle to connect in a hybrid work world. A recent global workforce survey from Gallup found that only 21% of employees are engaged at work, with many workers feeling disconnected and unable to find their work meaningful.
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“As an LGBT+ entrepreneur who grew up in a small, rural town, I experienced firsthand that connections and mentors were critical to opportunities and belonging. That’s why we built 10KC,” says Dave Wilkin, CEO and co-founder of 10KC. “Since inception, it’s been our mission to use technology to build more inclusive work environments, and this funding from Five Elms Capital reinforces the need for connectivity in a hybrid, decentralized world. I’m thrilled to help more employers provide their teams with all-in-one mentoring, employee connectivity, and skills development solutions.”
10KC works with 200 of the world’s leading businesses and social impact organizations, and its proprietary platform aims to foster a more connected workforce in the new world of decentralized, remote, and hybrid work environments. The company has a net client retention rate of 120% and a match quality score of 98%.
Jasper Raises $125M Series A Funding Round
Artificial intelligence (AI) platform provider Jasper has raised $125 million in Series A funding at a $1.5 billion valuation. The funding round is led by global software investor Insight Partners, with participation from Coatue, Bessemer Venture Partners, IVP, Foundation Capital, Founders Circle Capital, and HubSpot Ventures, among others.
The funding will be used by Austin, Texas-based Jasper to further invest in its own product, improve the company’s CX, and bring about the wider dissemination of its AI platform to creators. The capital infusion follows on the heels of the introduction of Jasper Art, which features text-to-image generation functionality.
Jasper’s newest innovation is a browser extension to power textboxes on any site, its generative AI enabling creators to produce original art or repackage content for format, language, and tone. The extension works across Google Docs, Gmail, Notion, HubSpot, Shopify, social media platforms, content management systems, and many more content destinations.
Jasper has shown dramatic growth since launching in January 2021, and the company today can claim more than 70,000 paying subscribers that range from individual creatives to teams at large enterprises.
AB Tasty Acquires Epoq to Boost Experience Optimization Platform
AB Tasty, the Paris-based fast-growing global experience optimization company, has acquired Epoq, an AI-driven recommendation and smart search solution headquartered in Ettlingen, Germany.
Financial terms of the transaction were not available, but the acquisition accelerates the shared vision of the two companies of empowering digital teams to deliver engaging shopping experiences along the consumer journey, accompanied by a best-in-class experience optimization platform. An all-in-one-solution, an experience platform includes customer data, AI, marketing automation, and analytics features to cultivate customers throughout their experience, using personalized content delivered in real time via
any channel.
Epoq executives say that joining forces with AB Tasty makes for a more formidable player in the market. The company’s AI-powered recommendation engine enables brands to showcase their most relevant products or content by analyzing shoppers’ click-and-buy behavior via a robust library of algorithms. With the search, businesses can provide consumers with a targeted buying journey, enabling a direct way to access products.
The acquisition makes AB Tasty the first company in its class to offer a consolidated approach in experience optimization with experimentation, personalization, recommendation, and intelligent search. With Epoq joining the AB Tasty global ecosystem, the company now has more than 1,100 clients and 320 employees, with 13 offices in key markets including France, Germany, UK, US, and the Asia-Pacific region.
The announcement comes after AB Tasty’s $40 million Series C fundraising. In the past two years, AB Tasty has grown 200% internationally and has added brands such as Kering, McDonald’s, and Ulta Beauty to its roster, in addition to L’Oreal, Disneyland Paris, and LVMH.
Acoustic Announces Strategic Growth Investment from Francisco Partners
Acoustic, the marketing technology and CX services provider for business-to-consumer (B2C) brands headquartered in Atlanta, has obtained a strategic growth investment of an undisclosed amount from Francisco Partners, an investment firm that specializes in partnering with technology businesses. Existing investor Centerbridge Partners, a private investment firm focused on private equity and credit investments, remains the primary equity holder in the company.
Acoustic helps brands deliver more than 120 billion personalized messages each year using its single, unified platform that combines marketing automation with digital experience analytics. The company also helps businesses create data-driven digital experiences across email, web, SMS/MMS, mobile push, WhatsApp, and social media, among other channels.
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Dennis Self, CEO of Acoustic, notes that as more consumer interactions take place digitally, CX becomes the deciding factor for whether consumers engage with a brand. “This investment validates our strategy for creating unified digital customer experiences at scale. It will also help accelerate our platform vision and continue to create highly personalized multichannel experiences through our product suite that connects consumers’ online interactions with the buying experience,” says Self. We’re excited to be working with two top-tier investors… as we continue to evolve our platform and offerings to enable a new generation of consumer marketing and experience capabilities.”
WebFX Acquires Nutshell to Form End-to-End Marketing and Sales Solution
Digital marketing solutions provider WebFx has acquired Nutshell, the customer relationship management (CRM) and email marketing service firm. Financial terms of the transaction were not available, but the two companies are aligned in a shared mission to drive revenue for customers through powerful digital services and software.
WebFx executives say that adding Nutshell to the WebFX umbrella creates an end-to-end revenue marketing solution for growing companies. Built from the ground up with revenue generation in mind, Nutshell has built-in functionality for sales automation and workflows, segmentation and audience creation, and custom reporting and dashboards.
The future roadmap will include deeper data integrations, enhanced security, creative ways to activate data into marketing campaigns, and more detailed lead attribution and tracking, WebFx says.
Author Information
Alex is responsible for writing about trends and changes that are impacting the customer experience market. He had served as Principal Editor at Village Intelligence, a Los Angeles-based consultancy on technology impacting healthcare and healthcare-related industries. Alex was also Associate Director for Content Management at Omdia and Informa Tech, where he produced white papers, executive summaries, market insights, blogs, and other key content assets. His areas of coverage spanned the sectors grouped under the technology vertical, including semiconductors, smart technologies, enterprise & IT, media, displays, mobile, power, healthcare, China research, industrial and IoT, automotive, and transformative technologies.
At IHS Markit, he was Managing Editor of the company’s flagship IHS Quarterly, covering aerospace & defense, economics & country risk, chemicals, oil & gas, and other IHS verticals. He was Principal Editor of analyst output at iSuppli Corp. and Managing Editor of Market Watch, a fortnightly newsletter highlighting significant analyst report findings for pitching to the media. He started his career in writing as an Editor-Reporter for The Associated Press.
