Javelin Venture Partners and two new VPs bet on company democratizing ecommerce software that enables Shopify merchants to collect zero-party data
Octane AI, the pioneer zero-party data marketing platform, announced it has raised $5 million in capital in a round led by Javelin Venture Partners, the investor behind Masterclass and Thumbtack, with participation from existing investors Bullpen Capital, General Catalyst and Boost VC. The company also announced the appointment of Alex Gurevich, Managing Director at Javelin Venture Partners as a Board Observer, along with the addition of a different — believe it or not — Alex Gurevich as the new VP of Finance and Operations, and Vincent Silvey as the company’s first VP of Engineering.
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“At Javelin, we love investing in teams that leverage technology to work for people instead of against them. Octane AI does just that by democratizing access to personalization tools for Shopify merchants, enabling them to see Amazon-level conversion rates, without sacrificing their independence,” said Gurevich. “We were impressed by the tremendous growth Octane has seen in the past year, while delivering a phenomenal return on investment for their customers. Matt and Ben are passionate entrepreneurs and outside the box-thinkers, who have built an incredible team and culture, which only now gets stronger with the addition of Alex and Vincent. We are thrilled to support them.”
Online stores are experiencing a decline in conversion rates because ecommerce competition is increasing, consumer expectations are rising and data privacy rules are changing. Octane AI is currently empowering ecommerce marketers with tools to collect zero-party data and power a personalized customer journey across owned and paid marketing channels, boosting website conversion rates and generating over $73 million in revenue for small and medium-sized Shopify stores around the globe.
The new round brings total funding to date to $14 million and adds to the company’s tremendous momentum over the past year with the recent launch of its new Conversational Pop-up product, the recognition by Shopify as the Best Storefront App and welcoming Shopify as a customer. In June, Shopify’s point-of-sale team launched an Octane AI Shop Quiz to provide a consultative experience that helps merchants find the right point-of-sale hardware for their business in seconds.
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“With the spotlight on privacy today, the smartest companies and brands in the world are shifting their marketing strategies from a cookie-tracking approach to zero-party data. Instead of relying on third-parties, brands should give customers the choice to share meaningful personal information proactively in order to build a relationship based on deep personalization and trust,” said Matt Schlicht, Octane AI CEO and Co-Founder. “Ecommerce quizzes and conversational pop-ups are a great way to enable zero-party data collection, and our goal at Octane AI is to help brands provide personalized shopping experiences, supporting their customers with discovering the best products for their preferences, needs, tastes and pain points.”
The new financing and leadership additions will help further propel product development, innovation and growth as the company continues to carry out its mission of personalizing the shopping experience. Joining this mission as VP of Finance and Operations is Alex Gurevich. With a track record of impact in high-growth technology companies like Google, Zendesk, and Credit Karma, Gurevich will help Octane AI capture the market opportunity and guide the efforts behind the team’s continuous and rapid growth. He shares more about his vision for Octane AI in this article.
In the newly created VP of Engineering role, Silvey will be responsible for nurturing the software development teams to scale and optimize Octane AI’s platform. He will serve as a transformational technical leader and motivator on scale, quality, and automation; building and supporting a world class technical team. Silvey brings over twenty years of experience in building highly engaged software engineering teams across financial services, education and marketing companies, including Campaign Monitor and J.D. Power. He shares more about his new role at Octane AI in this article.
“We’re so thrilled to have Javelin, Vince and Alex join our team, particularly at this crucial time of change and opportunity for ecommerce marketers to find a new data strategy,” said Ben Parr, Octane AI President and Co-Founder. “Instead of borrowing or paying for data, this is the time to own your data by saying goodbye to third-parties and joining the zero-party data movement! We are excited to be at the forefront of this and keep scaling our platform to meet marketers’ demands and build true partnerships with Shopify merchants that fuel their growth and success.”
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