Ematic Solutions, a Singapore headquartered software company that helps marketers improve their performance across digital marketing channels, has raised S$1.5 million (US$1.07 million) in a seed round.
Investors include 500 Startups, Wavemaker Partners and Convergence Ventures. The company will use the funding for product development and expansion of its global team, with hiring planned in Singapore, Europe and the US. Ematic Solutions is continuing to seek investment in this round to accelerate its Southeast Asian expansion – with a priority on Indonesia and Thailand.
It primarily targets eCommerce companies looking to increase open rates of marketing emails, customer engagement and online sales.
Ematic Solutions was founded by email marketing expert Paul Tenney, who remains CEO, in 2012. It focuses on helping companies increase return on investment in email marketing, using an easy, plug and play artificial intelligence engine that seamlessly integrates within a company’s existing systems (MailChimp, for example).
Over the past year, the company has expanded its app suite to include additional performance boosting tools, such as web and mobile engagement tracking applications that rapidly grow databases, and a tool that turns site visits and individual product views into sales.
Digital marketing continues to be a top priority for marketers in Asia Pacific. eMarketer has predicted that digital advertising spend in Asia Pacific will increase by more than 20 per cent to US$69.8 billion in 2016, and a separate survey showed senior marketers globally are focused on website content, development and performance optimisation as top budget allocation priorities.
Tenney said the company was founded to give marketers the ability to engage their customers in the most effective way, based on hard data and analysis, without needing to divert IT resources on a lengthy integration project.
“Our initial suite of applications helped our customers optimise their efforts around email and immediately started driving significant incremental revenue. We’ve witnessed similar success as we’ve rolled out additional tools, and we believe there are future opportunities across the entire digital marketing ecosystem. This funding will help us to refine our technology and introduce new solutions to online businesses in the region at an even faster pace,” he said.
Singapore eCommerce company Luxola, acquired by LVMH-owned Sephora earlier this year, was one of the first customers to implement Ematic’s apps. They immediately saw significant improvements to key metrics, including open rates, clicks and conversions, says Alexis Horowitz-Burdick, founder and CEO.
“One of the perennial challenges for any business is how to best acquire and then engage potential customers in a sustainable yet frequent manner to drive more sales. Ematic Solutions’ products check these boxes, and you don’t wait months to see results. Simply put, their engine does the work in managing and optimising the relationship and contact frequency with each individual customer; we can then focus our time on other parts of the business.”
Ematic will continue to focus on Southeast Asia, one of the fastest growing areas for eCommerce globally. Frost & Sullivan has predicted total revenues from B2C eCommerce in the six largest Southeast Asian markets will reach US$34.5 billion by 2018, from US$7 billion in 2013.
