BrightTag has just successfully completed their latest round of funding, bringing in over $27 Million. The Chicago-based firm, founded in 2009, is dedicated to helping their clients collect and use customer data in a variety of ways. Their most innovative technology, Fuse, helps businesses collect data from a variety of sources, including websites, mobile apps, social media, call centers and even brick and mortar locations, and then use the information collected to make real time decisions.
Virtually all businesses gather this type of data, but up until this point, it was often collected from each individual source, analyzed and then used to make decisions. With the Fuse technology, everything will be collected in the same area, allowing for real time decisions to be made. This will result in much more relevant and effective marketing strategies.
During this round of funding, BrightTag brought in money from Baird Capital, EPIC Ventures, I2A, Prizker Group Venture Capital and TomorrowVentures. The largest investor, however, was Yahoo! Japan. Yahoo! Japan is one of the world’s largest internet companies, and is planning to harness the Fuse technology to launch an innovative, cross-channel DMP, which will help marketers as well as agencies leverage the customer data they have collected.
Mike Sands, President and CEO of BrightTag, said, “Turning big data into immediately actionable knowledge is the holy grail for marketers in Japan and around the world. Yahoo Japan is at the forefront of helping marketers better understand, segment and target their audiences in complex ways that make their campaigns more effective and efficient.”
This latest successful round of funding was another indication of the confidence many people have in BrightTag. This confidence, it seems, is well earned, given the fact that they have had 300% year-over-year growth every year, and is already on track to do the same in 2014.