Marketing cloud firm MoEngage raises $9 mn in Series B funding round

California- and Bengaluru-based marketing cloud platform MoEngage Inc. has raised $9 million (around Rs 63 crore) in a Series B round of funding led by new investors Matrix Partners and Ventureast, a company statement said.

Existing investors Helion Venture Partners and Exfinity Ventures also participated in the round.

The company will use the capital to expand its presence globally and to strengthen its data science capabilities. It will also roll out its integrated marketing technology stack for enterprise clients, the statement added.

MoEngage was founded by Indian Institute of Technology-Kharagpur alumni Raviteja Dodda, chief executive officer, and Yashwanth Kumar, chief technology officer, in 2014. Prior to launching the company, the duo had co-founded Pipal Tech Ventures, a technology company developing mobile, social and location-based products. Dodda also had a brief stint with Cisco Systems.

“The funding comes at a time when we are looking to establish category leadership in Asia, grow our presence in North America & Europe and enhance our widely recognized AI Engine Sherpa,” Dodda said in the statement.

Companies such as Samsung, Deutsche Telekom, Hearst, Vodafone, Prudential, McAfee, Tokopedia and Airtel-Wynk among others are some of its clients.

MoEngage helps companies organise campaigns across channels like push notifications, email, in-app messaging, web push and SMS powered by machine learning.

In September 2015, it had raised $4.25 million (Rs 28 crores then) in a Series A funding round led by Helion Venture Partners. Exfinity Ventures, Snapdeal co-founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal, and TaxiForSure co-founder Raghunandan G had also participated in that round.

In December 2016, the company had raised an undisclosed sum from former Snapdeal product head Anand Chandrasekaran. 

VenturEast, which has been investing in India since 1997, manages about $325 million in assets under management. The company invests in technology, healthcare and clean environment sectors. It has made more than 100 investments. Its most recent bets include rural e-commerce startup Inthree Access Services Pvt. Ltd and big data analytics firm IQLECT.

In October this year, Ventureast exited its investment in Hyderabad-based women-focussed content startup Incnut Digital Pvt. Ltd by selling its stake to Tokyo-headquartered consumer internet company istyle Inc. The venture capital firm claimed it made 50X returns on its investment in Incnut.

Founded in 2006, Matrix Partners India invests in startups targeting consumer and enterprise market at the seed, early and early growth stages. In August this year, it raised $300 million (Rs 2,100 crore) for its third India-dedicated fund.

Its most recent investments include pharmacy app Myra and food and beverage brand &ME.