Founded in 2012 by Chief Executive Officer Hande Cilingir, alongside six other co-founders, Insider is a SaaS provider that helps brands be more efficient and successful with their online marketing. Initially established in Turkey, today the company is headquartered in Singapore.
The heart of what makes Insider unique is their goal to keep people more engaged on a brand’s website while helping website owners with their call to action, whatever that may be. The company also believes its efficient practices can lower customer acquisition costs while also boosting existing conversion rates with customized offerings.
Today, Insider has offices across the world, including London, Singapore, Tokyo, Dubai, Moscow, Warsaw, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Istanbul, Kiev, Sydney, Seoul, Ho Chi Minh City, Bangkok, Hong Kong, and Taipei. Its sights are now set on the United States.
This expansion into the U.S. comes as the company announces a Series C funding round of $32 million to do just that. The round was led by Riverwood Capital and joined by Sequoia India, Wamda, and Endeavor Catalyst. Insider will also use these funds to scale the platform’s capabilities, develop its engineering team, and invest in its global sales and marketing efforts.
“So far, we’ve focused on leading in high-potential markets in the Eastern part of the world. We plan to grow substantially in our existing 24 countries and we are now ready to enter the U.S. market and believe that our fresh solutions to marketers’ biggest pain points will be a major differentiator,” said Cilingir.
To date, the digital marketing SaaS company has raised $47 million. It now has teams providing deep localization for over 800 global clients that include UNIQLO, Singapore Airlines, Marks & Spencer, Estée Lauder, Virgin, Samsung, Carrefour, Dominos, Toyota, Newsweek, AVIS, Allianz, and IKEA.
Since 2012, the company has also implemented artificial intelligence (AI) into its platform, enabling marketers to connect with customers’ data across channels and predict future behavior while delivering tailor-made experiences. Unique to its platform is a broad range of features that coordinate all offline and online data across various engagement channels.
Insider isn’t just intent on transforming online marketing, but also the tech industry itself. Alongside Cilingir, half of its executive team is made up of women. This goes even further than the representation on the team, with the company also running a Young Engineers program that offers coding classes to girls in high school, with plans to expand to provide courses to primary school-age children as well.
