The MarTech Minute: ZoomInfo’s new B2B apps, funding news from AI startups and marketers on the move

MarTech Minute briefs always appear first in our daily newsletter throughout the week. Click here to subscribe. The following is our compilation of the past week’s briefs from those newsletters.

ZoomInfo debuts new apps. ZoomInfo has announced the launch of two new B2B applications, CommunitieZ Go and ZoomInfo Mobile. The applications seek to support the growing demand for instant access to B2B data. “It doesn’t matter if you’re a traditional sales or marketing professional or have an entirely different job function, the modern B2B professional is mobile,” said ZoomInfo Founder and CEO Henry Schuck. “They don’t just need to stay connected; they need to stay informed and opportunistic, too.”

Personalization technology helps drive growth in UK. Personalization tool Kameleoon and the popular parenting website Mumsnet have come together to increase and improve personalized experiences for customers. According to Mumsnet, the tools support personalization for 10 million active users on its site. The company credits Kameleoon for an uplift of 89% in click-thru rates alone.

6sense announces Series C funding news. B2B sales platform 6Sense has announced the close of its latest round, bringing in $40 million dollars. The round brings 6Sense’s total funding to $105 million. It also comes a year after the company doubled its customer base with new customers including Box, Cisco, Dell, Dendesk, Sumo Logic and Tableau, among others.

Lily AI closes its $12.5 million Series A. The Series A, led by Canaan Partners, with support from existing investors NEA, Fernbrook Management and Unshackled is intended to help the startup help brands convert customers by addressing the underlying emotions to tailor recommendations to consumers. Lily AI uses “deep product data and anonymized customer behavior.”

Coveo launches Coveo for Commerce. According to Coveo, the new solution unifies product catalogs and product-related content to provide shoppers with comprehensive relevant information in their shopping experience. “The experience economy is built on data and AI. Tech-first companies have trained people to expect personalized, relevant, and unified experiences. With Coveo every business can be an intelligent experience leader.” said Coveo chairman and CEO Louis Tetu. “But personalization alone is not enough; businesses also want to increase the profitability of their customer lifetime journeys.”

Braze launches machine learning capabilities. Braze has announced a number of new features and product expansions that are expected to help brands beef up cross-channel marketing, customer retention and increase customer loyalty. “We’re already in the age of automation, but AI and machine learning can still be perceived as cumbersome and difficult to figure out,” said Kevin Wang, vice president of product at Braze. “With Braze’s new Predictive Suite and streamlined Intelligence Suite, we’re aiming to provide brands a platform that is both effective and easy to use.”

Data profiling company launches beta product for retail marketers. PreciseTarget, which claims to profile the retail buying preferences of over 200 million US consumers, announced the beta launch of ‘Consumer Taste Profile’ data sets. According to PreciseTarget, Consumer Taste Profiles do not rely on cookies, clickstream data or personally identifiable information (PII), making the technology compliant with current and future digital privacy regulations. “Everyone knows that the retail industry is at a crossroads, and we’re here to throw retailers a lifeline by enabling a true omnichannel marketing strategy based on consumers’ individual taste,” said PreciseTarget CEO Rob McGovern.

Boomi announces Retail 360 ‘Accelerator’. According to Boomi, the new solution connects and unifies items, products, customers, payments and fulfillment data regardless of underlying application, catalog, market or channel. “It’s widely acknowledged that online commerce became mainstream in the last decade, however, the retail industry needs to morph and embrace change once again if it’s to succeed in this new decade,” said Ed Macosky, Senior Vice President of Product, UX and Solutions at Boomi. “Retail companies need to embrace the change, think of themselves of providers of highly personalized customer experiences, and harness the data to deliver unique and differentiated customer journeys.”

Marketers on the move

Simon Harrison is joining the communications solution provider Avaya as a senior vice president and chief marketing officer, effective January 27. Harrison will oversee the company’s global marketing efforts. “He is a tremendous addition to our team, and with the market insights and unique perspectives acquired from his work as an analyst and advisor, Simon will drive deeper awareness and preference for Avaya solutions with our expanding global network of customers and partners,” said Avaya CEO Jim Chirico. Prior to joining Avaya, Harrison was with Gartner, serving as a research director and was a lead analyst for the unified communications and contact center industry. During his career, he has held marketing and product management roles at a number of companies, including Cirrus, Vocalcom and Siebel Systems. 

Zignal Labs has promoted Jennifer Granston to the role of Chief Customer Officer where she will lead the company’s customer engagement and experience initiatives and manage multiple business units, including customer success, implementation, and training teams. “Jennifer has worked closely with our top customers to help them realize concrete business gains,” said CEO Adam Beaugh, “She has become an integral member of the team, and we look forward to her continued leadership.” Granston formerly served as the company’s head of strategy and insights, a role she took on in March, 2019 when she first joined Zignal Labs. 

The digital ad platform AUDIENCEX has named Brian Ko as its new Chief Commercial Officer. Ko will oversee the company’s sales, strategy, client services and marketing teams. “Brian has a proven leadership ability to help scale businesses like ours and drive continued rapid market expansion,” said AUDIENCEX COO and Co-founder Jason Wulfsohn, “With this latest addition to our executive team, coupled with investment from Decathlon, we expect to significantly build on the growth we saw in 2019.” AUDIENCEX recently received a multi-million dollar investment from Decathlon Capital Partners. Ko comes to AUDIENCEX from the native video marketplace platform Teads where he led the revenue team.