Zeta Interactive Closes $125M Funding, Plans US, UK Growth

Big data and analytics company Zeta Interactive said Wednesday it has closed a $125 million round of financing in a mix of debt and equity from several investment firms.

Zeta plans to use the financing to expand on its platform, grow market share in the U.S. and U.K. markets, and accelerate the company's strategic acquisition strategy, according to John Sculley, Zeta's co-founder, and former Apple CEO.

In the past two years, Zeta acquired several companies to strengthen its position, said Steve Gerber, COO of Zeta. It acquired the marketing automation platform,ClickSquared and the Actions division of Adchemy around the same time Walmart Labs acquired the engineering team and related technology from Adchemy.

Along with the Adchemy acquisition, Zeta picked up patented machine learning technology, which "is the intelligent layer," for the platform, Gerber said.

Developing technology or acquiring through acquisitions has been the growth strategy for the past six years. When asked about some of the technology the company will likely work on in the near future, Gerber said: "I think we could be stronger in video, and measurement in emerging applications like social commerce."

The company will also hire engineers and analysts specialists, which Gerber called "data scientists." About 600 employees support clients, with more than half in technology and data science.

The participating investors include FS Investment Corp., FS Investment Corp. II, and FS Investment Corp. III, business development companies (BDCs) advised by affiliates of Franklin Square Capital Partners and sub-advised by an affiliate of GSO Capital Partners LP (GSO), the credit platform of Blackstone.

1 comment about "Zeta Interactive Closes $125M Funding, Plans US, UK Growth".
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  1. Paul Benjou from The Center for Media Management Strategies, July 16, 2015 at 12:04 p.m.

    A huge vote of confidence for the work Zeta is doing in what has traditionally been an ignored marketing tool that goes beyond CRM. Now, the CMO Council needs to recognize eMail as a formidable media channel and not simply as an internal engagement tool. 
    WAK UP AMERICA!!

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