• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, June 8, 2016

Signal, a cross-channel marketing tech company, has closed a $30 million Series E funding round to expand globally, hiring employees and building out its product offering. The round was led by Chicago-based I2A, who were joined by Pritzker Group Venture Capital, Baird Capital, EPIC Ventures and Silicon Valley Bank.

Addressable targeting isn't a just a U.S. but a global trend. So part of the investment will go toward opening new offices or adding to teams in other markets such as Australia, where the company already has a presence. It also plans to enter new countries in Asia Pacific and Europe within the next two years.

Signal's technology lets marketers recognize and target individuals across devices. Signal aggregates data from different sources to help clients like Crate & Barrel, and Macy's track and target individual customers from emails, Web site visits, mobile apps, CRM systems, or purchases in brick-and-mortar stores through point of sale. Data from each of these channels is merged into a cross-channel profile for each customer.

People-based marketing, also referred to as addressable marketing, focuses on connecting brands with individuals across devices and channels in real time. In other words, people-based marketing ties data back to an individual customer, rather than a fragmented view of customers based on cookies, device IDs, or generic third-party data.

A recent study commissioned by Signal & Econsultancy found 92% of North American media buyers and 67% of advertisers are increasing people-based marketing budgets.

Search marketing also has a place in the cross-channel strategy. "If a marketer is effectively managing first-party data to build persistent cross-channel customer profiles, he or she can use that customer knowledge combined with live behavioral signals like search data to provide better experiences based on customer preferences and in-the-moment wants and needs," Signal CEO Mike Sands said.