Gigya, a SaaS-based platform connecting brands to permission-based consumer identity and behavior data, has raised $25 million in funding led by Greenspring Associates, bringing its investment total to $70 million, the company said.
Before the latest round, Gigya had raised $45 million to date from a number of investors since its founding in 2006, including Benchmark Capital, Advance Publications, Mayfield Fund, DAG Ventures and others. Gigya CEO Patrick Salyer said Greenspring Associates was “the No. 1 investor in ExactTarget before the acquisition by Salesforce.com and they really have a lot of applicable experience in this space.”
“This round is really a significant growth stage around … [becoming] a large, independent company that can be around 5,10, 15 years from now and seize market opportunity,” Salyer said. “We wanted to bring on a partner that knew the space we were going after well — SaaS marketing.”
In addition to using the funds to expand its offering, Gigya’s Connected Consumer Management Suite, the company plans to grow its 230-employee base to at least 300 by early next year, Salyer said. The company now has 700 customers, including the NFL, CBS, Barnes & Noble, Pepsi and the PGA.
Additionally, the company is expanding its NEXUS ecosystem, a network of approximately 21 integrations, to email marketing and data-management platform partners ranging from Lotame and BlueKai to Marketo and Silverpop. With regard to ad-category integrations, Salyer said the company is focusing on matching behavioral data around purchases with identity data to help companies more effectively acquire customers or buy media.
He added, “For us, the NEXUS program is critical because it’s how you actually use and leverage data. That’s something we’ll be spending a lot of time on over the next six months.”
Over the past few months, Gigya has inked alliances with Amazon and Google to, in the case of Google, enable Google+ sign-in to a host of Gigya client properties. Using Gigya’s Social Login functionality, Fox Broadcasting, for example, was able to authenticate users for its AmericanIdol.com property using their Google+ IDs.
