As Global Brands Balance Privacy and Personalization, Former Salesforce and Krux Execs Launch Habu to Solve the Biggest Problems Impacting Marketers
With $15m in Funding, Habu Emerges From Stealth to Help Brands Maximize Marketing Intelligence
Habu, a marketing data operating system, launches to help brands build a durable data foundation and deliver cross-channel personalization with automated privacy controls. After piloting with several global CPG and Fortune 500 brands for the last six months, Habu comes out of stealth with $15 million in Series A funding led by super{set}, with participation from select investors.
Increasing data regulations and shifting market dynamics have imposed severe limitations on marketers’ ability to harness first-party data to improve customer experiences and drive revenue. Created by former Salesforce executives and Krux founders, Habu is the most flexible solution for enriching, activating, and automating first-party data in a privacy-first world.
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With automated privacy at the core, Habu ensures brands are compliant with GDPR, CCPA, and the latest privacy regulations and consumer preferences – while also addressing the top challenges that marketers face today:
- Automated Insights: Marketers spend most of their ad dollars on media titans who restrict access to full campaign analytics — leaving brands with only last-click attribution and fragmented customer journeys. Habu provides individual-level insights and automated recommendations that enable marketers to improve CAC, ROAS, LTV and, as importantly, customer trust and growth.
- First-Party Data Growth: Marketers are under pressure to grow first-party data assets within a profoundly-changed landscape ruled by media behemoths, worldwide regulations, and high-complicated marketing clouds. Habu gives marketers the options, control, and flexibility to grow first-party data in a safe and neutral environment.
- Interoperable Tech: Legacy martech solutions haven’t delivered on the promise of automation or multi-channel personalization. What’s worse, the platforms are labor-intensive and weren’t built to support privacy-first principles. Habu’s modular OS is interoperable with existing martech stacks, so marketers don’t have to invest in yet another platform. Habu extends the capabilities of existing marketing technology.
- Omnichannel Orchestration: Cross-channel personalization remains more elusive than ever, and yet the majority of consumers expect it. Habu provides cross-channel identity management and delivers next-best-actions to high-intent segments for meaningful personalization.
“The future of marketing is real-time personalization. Habu is delivering that future by tackling one of the greatest challenges facing brands today: stitching together marketing and advertising data from multiple platforms to deliver a relevant consumer experience across all channels –– something that has eluded us for too long,” says Frédéric Rozé, Executive Vice President L’Oréal USA. “I’m encouraged by Habu’s focus on interoperability across multiple technology partners, and having worked with members of the Habu team over many years, I have high confidence in their ability to deliver immediate, measurable results for marketers.”
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“Meredith strives to personalize relevant experiences across all of our brands and platforms,” says Alysia Borsa, EVP/Chief Business & Data Officer at Meredith Corporation. “We need the best technology and proprietary data to make this happen at scale, all without relying on an overly complex roster of vendors. Based on my long history with this crew, I’m confident Habu will be a market leader into the next frontier of personalization.”
Habu plans to use the funding to fuel its team of experienced engineers and martech sales executives. The company currently employs 35 employees between San Francisco, Boston, and New York; and the team aims to double by year-end.
“I’ve talked to hundreds of CMOs about their marketing data challenges, and they’re all confronting the same dilemma: the privacy-personalization paradox,” says Habu CEO and co-founder Matt Kilmartin, formerly Chief Customer Officer of Salesforce’s Consumer Engagement Platform. “CMOs are under pressure to improve customer engagement, but they’re hampered by new market realities and rules. Habu resolves the privacy-personalization paradox with automated privacy controls, personalization at scale, and first-party data growth options.”
Habu was incubated within super{set}, a startup studio founded by Tom Chavez and Vivek Vaidya. Vaidya, formerly CTO of Salesforce Marketing Cloud and now co-founder and CTO of Habu adds, ”I am excited about this investment and the progress we have made at Habu over the last year. The tectonic shifts in our market, the changing privacy laws, and the advancements in technology –– these forces are creating the need for a new approach to consumer data. It’s why we built Habu.”
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