Kustomer raises $60M for its omnichannel-based CRM platform
0Reported today on TechCrunch
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Kustomer raises $60M for its omnichannel-based CRM platform
Kustomer, a CRM startup that's taking on the likes of Zendesk, Salesforce, and many other bigger and older providers, has closed yet another round of funding - no less than its third fundraise of the year - as it continues to double down on its new approach to managing customers in today's digital world.
The New York-based company has picked up another $60 million, a Series E led by new investor Coatue with participation from existing investors Tiger Global Management and Battery Ventures. Other investors in the company include Redpoint Ventures, Cisco Investments, Canaan Partners, Boldstart Ventures and Social Leverage.
CEO Brad Birnbaum - who co-founded the company with Jeremy Suriel (the two worked together across a range of other places including Airtime, Salesforce and AOL) - said the valuation is now "definitely above $500 million" but he declined to be more specific.
The New York-based company has been on a growth tear and has raised more than $161 million in the last 18 months (this $35 million raise and this $40 million raise were the other two 2019 rounds), and it has now racked up a total of $173.5 million in outside funding since it was founded in 2015.
"We're exceeding all our business metrics and so we're rapidly investing in the business," Birnbaum said of the recent quick succession of funding rounds. A focus for the company will be to put more into its R&D and product development, also to use the funding to support the opening of its first European office in Q1 of next year.
Kustomer works with a variety of retailers and has seen a boost in its business with the proliferation of direct-to-consumer brands which - by foregoing the traditional retail channel -