Conductor to Acquire ContentKing, Drift Adds Steve Lucas to Board, More News

Enterprise organic marketing platform Conductor has announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire real-time website auditing and monitoring solution ContentKing. Company officials said they plan to implement ContentKing’s technology within the Conductor platform as an organic marketing solution for enterprises.

Conductor officials are banking on providing marketing software needs that support organizations focusing on SEO for business growth. These marketers have complex needs and competing priorities across web, SEO and content teams, officials said, and Conductor wants to offer a solution that brings SEO workflow together via technical website monitoring.

ContentKing brings real-time monitoring capabilities and an integrated workflow for marketers. All ContentKing employees will join Conductor.

“With Conductor and ContentKing joining forces, digital teams will now be able to proactively ensure constant site best practices and quick triage of any future issues,” Seth Besmertnik, Conductor’s CEO and co-founder, said in a press release. “This will result in more time spent improving the overall content and digital experience, and less time fixing problems, losing revenue and worrying about something going wrong that you didn’t know about or couldn’t previously identify.”

Conductor is coming off a $150 million funding round last year from growth equity firm Bregal Sagemount.

In other digital marketing and customer experience software news…

Movable Ink To Acquire Coherent Path

Content personalization provider Movable Ink has announced that it intends to acquire Coherent Path, an AI-powered content engine.

Coherent Path aggregates data from a variety of sources and applies AI to map each customer’s product discovery path. Coherent Path will be integrated into the Movable Ink platform, company officials said, and marketers will be able to adapt messaging. Movable Ink focuses on content-level personalization by automatically generating content and integrating with investments like email service providers and marketing clouds.

Company officials said marketers will be able to understand customer intent, activate data and serve personalized content in an automated way. Coherent Path adds 50 employees. Movable Ink will have more than 500 employees globally.

Related Article: The Next Best Action: Where AI Can Help With Content Recommendations

Blackstone Growth Investment in Cloudinary Values Company at $2B

Media experience cloud company Cloudinary has announced a secondary investment from funds managed by Blackstone Growth (BXG). The transaction represents an investment of more than $100 million and values Cloudinary at $2 billion, according to company officials.

Cloudinary is coming off an acquisition of Indivio, a video software company that delivers personalized videos at scale that are customized in real-time. Cloudinary is focusing on visual media, digital-first engagements and visual-first customer experiences.

“Remarkably, and somewhat quietly behind the scenes, Cloudinary powers the websites and apps that millions engage with every day,” Ramzi Ramsey, managing director at Blackstone Growth, said in a press release. “We are very excited to support the next phase of growth for this tremendous company which is playing a critical role as more and more businesses emphasize digital media and their online experiences.” 

DTCP Joins Series B Round $15 Million Investment for Cognigy

Omnichannel customer service automation provider Cognigy has closed an additional $15 million funding round with DTCP. This brings the total Series B funding for the company to $59 million. Cognigy will continue to build out capabilities for its conversational AI offerings.

“Closing the extended round with DTCP’s investment is another big step forward as we expand operations in Europe, North America and the Asia Pacific region and support a growing network of partners and strategic alliances,” Philipp Heltewig, CEO and co-founder at Cognigy, said in a press release. “Their extensive digital connectivity expertise and strong global network complement our market-leading technology and expanding global footprint to bring the transformational power of conversational AI to customer service.”

Cognigy.AI’s conversational AI platform builds voice and chatbots for customer service and employee communication automation. The low code platform includes 100 languages.

Related Article: How Will Conversational AI Transform Customer Experience?

Raydiant Raises $30 Million Series B

In-location experience management platform Raydiant, which specializes in brick-and-mortar enterprises, has announced it has raised a $30 million Series B funding round led by 8VC and Atomic Ventures, with participation from Lerer Hippeau, Gaingels, Mark Wahlberg, Haveli, Illuminate Ventures and XRC. Raydiant plans to make strategic acquisitions and grow its employee base.

“This increase in funding will help us continue to drive the future of in-location experiences for both in-store customers and back of house employees on a global scale,” Bobby Marhamat, CEO at Raydiant, said in a press release. “The pandemic has changed the way we shop and engage with brands, and brick-and-mortar organizations need to evolve if they’re going to keep their doors open.”

Raydiant acquired Sightcorp’s AI-powered shopper intelligence solution, which helps brands measure customized offline experiences from plug-and-play digital signage to self-service kiosks and interactive virtual agents, according to company officials. The platform includes optimized content on screens powered by real-time audience and performance data insights.

Raydiant, since a Series A round in January 2021, has reached 4,500 customers, grown to 100 partners in its application marketplace and closed two acquisitions (Hoopla and Sightcorp). 

Acquia Launches UK Hosting Solution

Digital experience software provider Acquia has announced the launch of its new Drupal Cloud hosting solution for customers in the United Kingdom. A London data center provides in-country hosting for organizations impacted by Brexit and who prefer their Drupal databases to remain in-country, according to company officials.

Drupal Cloud is a composable experience platform on which customers build and deploy applications. Acquia also offers regional data centers in Ireland, Germany, Singapore, Australia, Japan and China. Acquia customers migrating Drupal applications to the UK can do so with Acquia Platform Migration Services, which includes Acquia Professional Services Technical Architect.

Related Article: Why Cloud & Governance Matter When Scaling Digital Experience Platforms

Contentgine Launches Content Indication Platform

Content-based marketing provider Contentgine has unveiled its Content Indication Platform (CIP). The online SaaS platform provides access to Contentgine’s proprietary and 100% first-party account intent and categorical content insights.

CIP mines one billion engagement signals quarterly from content interactions from a B2B library of more than 500,000 case studies, white papers and ebooks to deliver market intelligence. It also includes the personalized content consumption patterns of millions of professionals. The CIP platform captures these engagements to determine 360-degree intent and provides content intelligence.

“There is a vast amount of actionable information on CIP for marketing and sales organizations to help drive opportunities and return on investment,” Tim Ribich, Chief Product Officer of Contentgine, said in a press release.

“This information includes which prospects are most active in a specific product category, the specific research behaviors within those prospect accounts and which content is performing well in the market. These insights ultimately give teams a deeper understanding of product categories and a broader set of data to enhance their lead generation programs and hone their marketing efforts.” 

CIP will be rolled out fully to Contentgine customers this quarter.

Speedeon and Jornaya Partner To Launch Data Monitoring Product

Direct marketing and data agency Speedeon has announced the launch of its DATAWATCH Intent solution, which monitors online behaviors. Speedeon partnered with Jornaya, which provides customer journey intent data, on the launch DATAWATCH Intent.

Through DATAWATCH Intent, marketers can:

• Automatically monitor their best customers and prospects for digital intent
• Get access to Jornaya’s view into over 400 million shopping events every month
• Discover opportunities based on a user’s search for specific products
• Identify in-market buyers in the midst of researching competitive solutions
• Use individual-level intent data to launch triggered, automated marketing campaigns

“Jornaya’s customers have turned to us for many years to access unique behavioral data that becomes a critical ingredient into their marketing strategies,” Eli Schwarz, Chief Strategy Officer at Jornaya, said in a press release.

“This same data becomes turnkey actionable for marketers when it is paired with Speedeon’s marketing database solutions and campaigns services, which can enable right-timed communications that engage consumers when they are truly in-market and ready to buy.”

Drift Appoints Steve Lucas to Board of Directors 

B2B conversational commerce provider Drift has announced that Steve Lucas has joined its board of directors. Lucas is the CEO of iCIMS, the talent cloud company, and was the former CEO of Marketo, a marketing automation provider. Prior to Marketo, which was acquired by Adobe, Lucas served in senior leadership roles at SAP, Salesforce and Business Objects.

“Steve’s impressive track record of accelerating revenue, increasing efficiency across best-in-class teams and strengthening customer success will be invaluable to us as we scale and innovate to meet the needs of our customers across the globe,” David Cancel, co-founder and CEO of Drift, said in a press release.

“Steve has already proven to be a trusted advisor and we are thrilled to welcome him to the board. I know his unique experience and guidance will help us deliver on our mission to make it easier for businesses to buy from businesses.”