Engage3, a leading competitive intelligence and consumer engagement company, today announced its $12-million round of Series B financing. The round is led by Kayne NewRoad Ventures Fund II, LP (KNRVII) with participation from Pereg Ventures, Moneta Ventures, and Dale Carlsen, the Founder of The Sleep Train Mattress Center (now Mattress Firm).
The investment will place Doug Degn, a former Walmart EVP of Merchandising, and Itzhak Fisher, the former EVP of Global Business Development and M&A with Nielsen, on the company's Board of Directors.
The funding will enable Engage3 to grow the team, expand upon its omni-channel retail pricing platform, and accelerate the deployment of the company's B2B personalization solution.
"Simply put, Engage3's platform to gather competitive pricing intelligence enables retailers to deliver thoughtful pricing," said Doug Degn, Partner with KNRVII. "Thoughtful pricing - the idea of finding balance between delivering the value that customers expect every day and achieving desired levels of profitability. This is no easy task in today's ultra-competitive marketplace."
"Engage3 is a great example of the type of founder-led businesses with domain expertise, that we like to invest in," said Itzhak Fisher, Managing Partner of Pereg Ventures. "The competitive and promotional pricing intelligence platform that Ken and the team have developed over the last few years presented a great investment opportunity for us, and we're excited to support the company in their next chapter of growth."
Engage3 has achieved 200% year-over-year growth and services over 25 tier-1 major retailers across North America and the U.K. Engage3 provides Data-as-a-Service, Analytics-as-a-Service, and Software-as-a-Service offerings that cumulatively add between 35-150 basis points to their customers' pricing programs.
"We've entered a new phase in the evolution of retail," said Ken Ouimet, Founder and CEO of Engage3, "and our continued traction in the market is a testament to the differentiating value we're creating for our customers as we work with them to compete more profitably. We are incredibly humbled and energized to be joined by our new investors on our journey to transform retail pricing."
Previous Engage3 investors include The McClatchy Company (NYSE: MNI) and Swift Communications.
About Engage3™
Founded by the same team that pioneered Retail Price Optimization at Khimetrics, Engage3™ combines data science, deep domain expertise, and innovative technology to be a leading competitive intelligence provider and consumer science company. Engage3's omni-channel competitive intelligence SaaS platform, MissionControl™, improves CPG companies' competitive visibility and maximizes their ROI. MissionControl™ is powered by advanced predictive analytics and Engage3's historical product and pricing database, which consists of over 8 million UPCs and 10 billion price updates per year across over 32,000 retail locations. Engage3 is also recognized by IDC Retail Insights as a first mover in providing participatory commerce solutions for retailers and manufacturers via its Consumer Engagement and Personalization Platform. The platform leverages digital assistants to enable true 1-1 offers that improve the ROI of trade funds 4x over traditional promotions and help retailers & brands transition to this hyper competitive future of personalized pricing. More information is available at http://www.engage3.com.
About Kayne NewRoad Ventures Fund II, L.P.
Kayne NewRoad Ventures Fund II, L.P. is a joint venture between Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors, L.P. and NewRoad Capital Partners, LLC. The Fund was formed to create and target demand-driven businesses with strong management teams in targeted market niches with operational expertise and capital to achieve outsized growth. The fund focuses on markets including retail, consumer packaged goods, supply chain and logistics, consumer healthcare, environmental and U.S. manufacturing. The fund is co-managed by Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors, L.P. and NewRoad Capital Partners, LLC.
Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors, L.P., founded in 1984, is a leading independent alternative investment management firm focused on niche investing in upstream oil and gas companies, energy infrastructure, specialized real estate, middle market credit and growth private equity. Kayne Anderson's investment philosophy is to pursue niches, with an emphasis on cash flow, where our knowledge and sourcing advantages enable us to deliver above-average, risk-adjusted investment returns. Kayne Anderson manages over $23 billion in assets for institutional investors, family offices, high net worth and retail clients and employs over 300 professionals in eight offices across the United States.
NewRoad Capital Partners, LLC is a venture and growth equity firm focused on investing in technology-enabled businesses with an emphasis on retail, consumer packaged goods, supply chain, data, health and wellness, and U.S. manufacturing. NewRoad is based in Bentonville, Arkansas, the epicenter of retail, supply-chain, and logistics and is currently investing out of its second fund.