Private capital has played an important role in cultivating the software industry and that role will expand over time as the benefits of being a public company continue to decline. Within the software sector, one area that has intrigued enterprises for some time is search. Fortunately, search has become more detailed and sophisticated as search technology can leverage AI to truly personalize the search process while tapping into various data sources from websites to company electronic file systems to SaaS solutions like Salesforce, ServiceNow, Sitecore and many others.
One company advancing quickly in the field is Coveo, which uses AI and intelligent search technologies to personalize millions of digital experiences. It partners with a large number of enterprise technology players and has more than 1,500 activations in mid-to-large sized global organizations across multiple industries.
Recently, Coveo announce it was taking in $227 million through a Series F round led by OMERS Growth Equity. OMERS is one of Canada’s largest defined benefit pensions plans with over $97 billion Canadian in net assets.
Mark Shulgan, Managing Director and Head of Growth Equity at OMERS had this to say, “We are excited to partner with Coveo as it continues to help global enterprises create personalized experiences at scale, delivering the right data to the right people at the right time. Our investment in Coveo aligns closely with our belief that growth in data along with advances in machine learning and artificial intelligence are becoming increasingly important to companies, to help them increase sales and reduce costs. The cognitive search industry is a large and growing market, and global enterprises of all sizes can create significant value throughout their organizations by empowering their customers and employees through search.” Shulgan will be joining Coveo’s Board of Directors.
This is not OMERS’ first foray into software. They have a strong history in the space going back over two decades and includes investment in Civica, Constellation Software, Inmar, League, Logibec, and Shopify, among others.
Coveo’s existing investors include Evergreen Coast Capital, Elliott Management’s Menlo Park, California-based private equity affiliate, F.S.T.Q and IQ. They also participated in the Series F Round.
