Marketing automation vendor Act-On acquired for $53 million

Marketing automation provider Act-On, one the early players in the SaaS martech space, was acquired Thursday by Banzai.

Banzai is paying $53.2 million for Act-On, with $20 million in cash and the remainder in stocks and warrants.

Banzai became a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) in December 2023 and offers a collection of marketing tools, including Curate, which uses AI to create newsletters, webinar platform Demio and Reach, which deploys multichannel outbound campaigns.

Act-On was founded in 2008, one year after Marketo and two years after Pardot. While Marketo and Pardot were acquired by enterprise vendors — Adobe bought Marketo in 2008 and Salesforce bought Pardot in 2013 — Act-On focused on delivering sophisticated yet affordbale marketing automation capabilities to mid-market customers at an affordable price.

But the company is far from alone when it comes delivering those services to small and mid-market companies. Constant Contact, AWeber, Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) and Intuit’s MailChimp, among others, all play in the same market.

Both companies are rooted in the Pacific Northwest. Act-On was founded in Portland, Ore., while Banzai calls Bainbridge Island, Wash., its home. 

Well-known Act-On customers include Best Buy, Hitachi and Autozone. Most of Act-On’s employees will be joining Banzai. The company’s CEO, Kate Johnson, will depart once the deal is finalized.

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