Bloomreach acquires Exponea to create a billion-dollar company
Bloomreach, a leading commerce experience software provider, has acquired Customer Data and Experience Platform (CDXP) Exponea. Bloomreach fuels its expansion with $150 U.S. million investment that it has just secured from Sixth Street Growth. What goals have both companies set for the future?
Bloomreach is pitched as a commerce experience platform that provides a number of features that, when integrated with e-commerce software, improve the shopping experience. These include search, merchandising, content management, recommendations and SEO.
Exponea is a Customer Data Platform (CDP) and a marketing automation platform. It provides omnichannel orchestration, web optimization, product recommendations, and more, along with its core CDP. It was founded in Slovakia in 2015 and it entered the US market in 2018.
Bloomreach and Exponea believe that Bloomreach’s e-commerce search and content services combined with Exponea’s customer data platform and marketing automation will create the first-ever truly integrated product and customer data set.
“This combination will accelerate the speed of execution for businesses to create, personalize, and optimize powerful commerce experiences and accelerate revenue growth for both B2C and B2B brands,” they said in a news release announcing the acquisition.
“Incredible e-commerce experiences come from putting exactly the right product in front of a customer at the right time on the right channel and that requires a deep understanding of products and people which hasn’t been possible until now,” said Raj De Datta (LinkedIn profile), CEO at Bloomreach.
He also thinks that the acquisition will position Bloomreach as a market-leading commerce experience platform in a multi-billion dollar market that is exploding. As a solution, Bloomreach is now uniquely at the intersection of marketing, commerce, and AI, he said.
Also Peter Irikovsky, Exponea CEO (LinkedIn profile), is thrilled about the acquisition and enthusiastic for the future of the combined companies.
“Both Bloomreach and Exponea are leaders in their respective fields of commerce and are focused on different aspects of the customer journey. Together, we’ll be the only solution provider capable of bringing such holistic data, expertise, and intentionality to the way brands interact with their customers. I can’t wait to see clients from both sides reap the benefits in how they operate and the results they generate, particularly in the U.S. market,” said Irikovsky.
From partnership to becoming a unicorn
Bloomreach and Exponea have cooperated since October last year providing their joint customers with seamless experiences across digital marketing and commerce programs. The partnership must have worked well because Bloomreach has now acquired Exponea and both companies are openly saying about becoming a unicorn.
“Bloomreach is worth $900 million. The main goal in 2021 is to expand and become a billion-dollar business. Forbes presented us as a billion-dollar idea in 2017, and we plan to reach that goal in 2021,” said Tomáš Sakál (LinkedIn profile), talent engagement head in Exponea, in a report for news site Startitup.sk.
Both companies will continue to sell their services independently, but also optionally together, according to a report on Diginomica. The report underlines that this acquisition makes a lot of sense for Bloomreach not only because the company will be able to build a better data platform with Exponea’s CDP, but also because of the tight integration of a marketing automation solution to help deliver better experiences.
“Commerce experiences focus on the sale, but rarely do well on what comes next – building loyalty and driving repeat purchases, upselling or cross-selling. Incorporating marketing automation can help companies improve in this area, getting a clear understanding of the customer and how to engage them in the next steps from whatever channel works best for each one,” Diginomica said.
Raj De Datta will lead the merged companies while Irikovsky will stay with the company and play a vital role in the future growth of Bloomreach, according to Bloomreach CEO.
