ContentSquare raises 60 million dollars to accelerate internationally
ContentSquare, a startup Seed4Soft backed at seed stage in 2012, has just announced a 60 million dollar round to accelerate its international expansion.
The amount
The Paris startup ContentSquare, which builds a platform for optimising and analysing the user experience, has closed a Series C round of 60 million dollars led by Eurazeo. The existing investors, the American funds Canaan (Lending Club, Match.com) and Highland Europe (Photoshop, WeTransfer), along with the Italian family office H14, also took part. The company had previously raised 42 million dollars in January 2018 and 20 million dollars in October 2016.
The market
Founded in 2012 by Jonathan Cherki on leaving Essec, ContentSquare launched SaaS software that tracks visitors' journeys down to the smallest movement of their mouse, so that brands can optimise the user experience and increase their revenue. By tracking "billions of touch gestures and mouse movements", the company gathers data on consumer behaviour to help brands understand how and why users interact with their apps, their mobile sites and their websites. In this way ContentSquare's clients can identify the strong and weak points of the purchase journey, and so spot the moments where a visitor hesitates or even abandons their browsing.
Betting on behavioural data, artificial intelligence and big data, the Paris company, which also has offices in London, New York and Munich, seeks to turn the information gathered into levers for action, in the form of automatic recommendations, so that companies can increase engagement, reduce operating costs and optimise conversion rates. ContentSquare's system is used mainly by digital, content, product, analytics, acquisition, IT and of course UX teams. To date the company claims more than 250 clients, including Walmart, Samsung, Sephora, AccorHotels, LVMH, GoPro and Ikea.
The goals
This round is intended to let ContentSquare accelerate its international growth. The company is targeting the United States, Europe, Asia and the Middle East first. In parallel, the company led by Jonathan Cherki wants to strengthen its R&D arm to intensify its efforts in artificial intelligence and predictive data analysis. Currently employing 320 people, the French startup plans to recruit 150 more by the end of the year, 80 of them for its R&D division.
"With this new funding round we are accelerating the development of our solution, improving our data processing technologies in particular so as to offer more numerous and ever more intelligent analyses. Online as well as offline, that will give retailers and brands a better return on investment and the identification of new commercial opportunities, while letting them take data-based decisions to improve their digital experience," explains Jonathan Cherki, founder and CEO of ContentSquare.
ContentSquare: the key facts
Founder: Jonathan Cherki Founded: 2012 Headquarters: Paris Business: a platform for optimising and analysing the user experience Funding: 60 million dollars in January 2019