SOCi announces funding total of $120M, aims to redefine marketing software
SOCi Inc., provider of a marketing platform for multi-location brands, announced it has raised a total of $120 million, enabling the company to invest in a line of AI marketing products and expand into new markets.
The round is led by JMI Equity (JMI), a growth equity firm focused on investing in leading enterprise software companies, with participation from Vertical Venture Partners (VVP), Blossom Street Ventures, and strategic investor Renew Group Private Limited, owner of 5-hour Energy International and other products.
Led by a group of neuro and data scientists, SOCi aims to leverage the new investment to change the relationship its customers have with marketing software, according to the company.
Through a new line of "Genius" products, SOCi will leverage advanced artificial intelligence and machine learning models to transform its software from an award-winning platform that enterprise brands leverage to market to their customers, to a marketing partner that makes highly intelligent and impactful marketing decisions while also automating time-consuming marketing tasks at scale.
SOCi recently launched the first “Genius” product with a first-of-its-kind OpenAI integration into the company’s review response management tool, which uses ChatGPT’s natural language model to enable instant, intelligent responses to online reviews.
"SOCi’s customers have thousands of marketing decisions to make across hundreds or thousands of locations. The opportunity for optimization is incredible, but at such a scale it’s stunted by true human capacity issues," said Afif Khoury, CEO and co-founder of SOCi. "Our 'Genius' products are the answer, as they will leverage sophisticated data science models to drive recommendations and automate data-driven decisions across the organization."
In addition to its investment in AI technology, SOCi will use the funding to expand into new markets, including manufactured goods.
The funding round comes at a time when many companies are struggling to raise capital due to the challenging economic environment. However, SOCi's performance and drive for innovation have made it a category leader, driving significant investor interest in the company, according to the vendor.
For more information about this news, visit www.meetsoci.com.