Salesforce Buys Personalisation Specialist Evergage

CRM software giant Salesforce has acquired personalisation software firm Evergage for an undisclosed sum.

Somerville, MA-based Evergage offers a real-time personalization and customer data platform, combining in-depth behavioral analytics and advanced machine learning with data from existing sources to help build a 'single, comprehensive view of each customer and prospect', and produce personalised and timely experiences and communications. The firm had $26m in funding prior to the acquisition, led recently by Arrowroot Capital, with support from G20 Ventures and Point Judith Capital.

Founder and CEO Karl Wirth (pictured left) comments: 'Evergage's mission has always been to personalize the world, and we've been doing that one client at a time for nearly ten years. Arrowroot has been an amazing investor and partner for Evergage helping us to build the company. Now, as a part of Salesforce, we'll be able to do what we do better and at a much greater scale and pace than we ever could before'.

In a blog post, Wirth said the firm's 'real-time, cross-channel personalization and machine learning capabilities complement Salesforce Marketing Cloud's robust customer data, audience segmentation and engagement platform'. This will help Salesforce to compete with the likes of Adobe in the field of digital customer experience.

Matthew Safaii, founder and Managing Partner at Arrowroot Capital and an Evergage board member since 2016, says the Salesforce buy 'highlights Evergage's industry leading product and its ability to service clients'. He continues: 'Early on it was evident Karl and Greg [Hinkle, co-founder with Wirth, pictured right] had a clear comprehension of the needs of the industry and where it was heading'.

Web sites: www.salesforce.com and www.evergage.com .