The new unicorn does not come from Silicon Valley, but from Turkey. Insider, a technology firm that was born in 2012 with the aim of offering personalized and multi-channel customer experiences, closed a Series D round for 121 million dollars (million dollars), which made it reach a valuation of 1,220 million dollars.
The round was led by QIA, but other investment funds such as Sequoia Capital, Riverwood Capital, 212, Wamda Capital, Esas Private Equity and Endeavor Catalyst also participated.
“QIA is constantly looking for innovation, both in the MENA region and globally, in line with our growing focus on the technology market. Insider clearly stands out in the marketing technology ecosystem, and its highly personalized results deliver value to audiences and businesses alike,” said Mansoor bin Ebrahim Al-Mahmoud, CEO of QIA.
“What we see from Sequoia is that the companies that can delight their customers are the ones that win; and Insider is doing just that. Taking personalization to another level to help brands satisfy their customers. And without a doubt, this is the future of CX”, commented Pieter Kemps, director of Sequoia Capital.
With this capital, Insider plans to expand in Mexico and invest 50 million dollars to create at least 100 jobs in three years, mainly for commercial and marketing profiles.
Mexico on the Insider Map
Alejandro Noriega, country manager for Insider in Mexico, says the additional capital will be used to fuel rapid expansion, improve technology and scale local investments in sales and marketing.
“We have found incredible growth in Latin America since we opened our office in Sao Paulo, Brazil in 2020; driven by a fast-growing e-commerce market, our alliance with FCB Mexico and our recent opening of the CDMX office,” said the manager.
“This D-series will allow us to further accelerate our growth in Latam and strengthen our leadership position in optimizing the customer experience. We are very excited to become a major player in the Mexican market in the coming months.”
company growth
Insider was founded by Hande Cilingir, CEO of the company; Serhat Soyuerel, chief revenue officer; Arda Koterin, chief customer officer; Sinan Toktay, CTO; Okan Yedibela, VP of Engineering, and Muharrem Derinkök, chief product officer.
Currently, it has a staff of more than 700 collaborators of 41 different nationalities and is present in 28 countries. Insider is a female talent-led organization where 60% of the company’s senior executive positions, including the CEO, CMO, CFO and CHRO, are women.
With the funding milestone, the company became one of the few female-led SaaS unicorns in the world. According to Crunchbase, Insider is one of the top nine B2B SaaS unicorns globally; the fifth B2B SaaS unicorn in the United States, the fourth in Europe, the second in Asia and the first in Latin America.
Today, the firm provides digital growth acceleration services through digital channels to more than 1,000 brands such as Samsung, Banco Santander, Coca-Cola, Adidas, L’Oreal, Claro, Vodafone, IKEA, MAC, Virgin, Toyota, Singapore Airlines, Madeira Madeira, Marks & Spencer, BBVA and Estée Lauder.
“We have scaled remarkably in the last three years and achieved 3X growth. In the same period, our global team grew 300% and our customer base continues to grow,” said founder and CEO Hande Cilingir.
For Joe De Pinho, director of the Riverwood Capital fund, the level of competition for SaaS companies has risen across the board over the last five years. Insider stands out as an outlier, he says.
“Hande is a truly exceptional leader and, backed by her brilliant teams and co-founders, she is building a world-class software company with capabilities that surpass many in Silicon Valley. His is a different mentality: one that breaks the limits and makes what seems impossible for many, a possibility”, says De Pinho.
The differentiating value
Insider is a platform that generates personalized cross-channel experiences and enables marketing teams to connect customer data across channels and systems and predict future behavior with an AI-powered intent engine.
Marketing teams use the Insider platform to deliver experiences across channels like web, app, email, SMS, and messaging apps like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and RCS.
Insider technology coordinates all online and offline data into a single, unified platform that enables marketing teams to connect customer data across channels and systems to reveal interests and preferred touchpoints.
The platform, Noriega details, also makes it possible to predict future behavior with an intention engine powered by artificial intelligence and to orchestrate and offer personalized and optimized experiences to customers.
“Which customer segments are likely to buy and leave your site? Insider integration takes minutes, not months, reducing reliance on internal IT teams. The platform enables digital marketing teams to drive growth across all channels and through the entire funnel, impacting ROI metrics, conversion rate, CAC, CLTV, and average ticket,” he explains.
