SmarterHQ, the leading customer personalization engine that powers real-time individualized campaigns for Bloomingdales, Eddie Bauer, Kate Spade and Finish Line, announces today the closing of a $13 million round of funding. Spring Lake Equity leads the financing round with participation from previous investors Simon Venture Group, the investment arm of Simon Property Group, and Battery Ventures. Since 2014, SmarterHQ has raised a total of $33.6 million in venture financing.

SmarterHQ will use this latest round of financing to expand sales and marketing efforts as the company pursues growth into new vertical markets, allowing industries like financial services and travel and hospitality to mimic the retail industry's digital marketing experiences.

'SmarterHQ allows marketers to turn aspirations into reality,' said Bob Forlenza, managing partner of Spring Lake Equity. 'We are truly impressed not only by the nationally recognized brands that utilize SmarterHQ's technology, but also by the astounding results the company is able to consistently provide for its clients.'

According to the November 2015 Forrester report, Putting Real-Time Interaction Management Into Context, 'real-time interaction management (RTIM) customers said that orchestrating real-time cross-channel interactions will be their biggest challenge in the coming two years.' SmarterHQ's personalization engine empowers brands to predict and respond to customer interactions in real time through automated multi-channel campaigns. With built-in machine learning capabilities, these campaigns continue to grow more sophisticated over time to drive powerful results.

'Our continued support of SmarterHQ stems from testimonials we receive from the retail brands we work with looking to create a robust omni-marketing strategy and a 360-degree view of their customer,' said J. Skyler Fernandes, founder and managing director of Simon Venture Group. 'With SmarterHQ, retailers are driving more revenue in one day than they could with a full month's worth of non-personalized messages. The ROI is quite impressive and is the result of their advanced machine learning capabilities.'

The company has already began working with auto company CarRentals.com and a leading financial services company, introducing new markets and industries to automated, personalized marketing campaigns.

'We are excited to have the backing from investors like Spring Lake Equity as we expand into new markets,' said Michael Osborne, CEO and president of SmarterHQ. 'The company's reputation and experience in the space will be critical to our success as we begin to apply real-time personalized campaign automation to new industries.'

SmarterHQ also continues to have the backing of Battery Ventures, which has previously funded startups that have been acquired by companies such as Salesforce and Oracle. In the past year, SmarterHQ has been named to the Inc. 500 list of the 5000 Fastest Growing Companies in America (#669) and launched a new edition of their platform, StoreFront, which allows marketers to automate real-time personalized content by leveraging both behavioral and transactional data from online and in-store sources. Recently, SmarterHQ has added brands like Dillard's, White House Black Market and GNC to its client roster. Visit www.SmarterHQ.com to learn more.

About SmarterHQ
SmarterHQ is the leading multi-channel personalization engine, empowering B2C marketers to respond to customer interactions in real-time based on their online and offline behavior. We work with some of the world's largest brands such as Eddie Bauer, eBags, Chico's, and Finish Line to drive phenomenal business results. We've also been recognized by Forbes as a technology to push B2C companies into a new era of personalization. For more information visit www.smarterhq.com.