• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, January 27, 2023

Bloomreach surpassed $150 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) at the close of 2022, up from $100 million in 2021. The fourth quarter of last year garnered the largest ARR number in the company’s history. This follows its $175 million investment led by Goldman Sachs, announced last year.

Raj De Datta, co-founder and CEO at Bloomreach, attributes the growth to the ecommerce industry, which is becoming increasingly important. There has also been strong consumer sentiment around the importance of having a more personal experience.

When asked whether he felt the layoffs across the industry are a result of overhiring or a slowdown in purchases, De Datta said many of the large companies have over-hired. We see that in Silicon Valley all the time.

“We operate balanced, cash burn with growth,” he said. “That wasn’t sexy when stock markets were going through the roof, but last year it was rewarded.”

De Datta said clients are most concerned about the supply chain issues, inflation, and economic deterioration that could result in a recession.

Bloomreach this year plans to invest in research and development, building out its data engine and personalization platform. It also platform to buildout its partner ecosystem and expand geographically across North America and Europe, investing in marketing and technology.

There will be growth in markets where the company has a small market share, but there are not plans to move into new markets. Examples of new markets include France and Germany.

Data privacy regulations have strengthened Bloomreach’s worth.

“With CCPA in California, GDPR in Europe and deprecation of cookies, the use of third-party data has become less valuable and needed,” he says. “Companies are finally realizing the best data they can have comes from their customers.”

De Datta has no plans to move the company's headquarters out of California, but said the company has always been globally diverse with teams worldwide, totaling about 900 employees.

Some of the trends for 2023 that De Datta identify include customer-first personalization, generative artificial intelligence and large language models, and remote work.  

“The ship has sailed on everyone being back in the office all the time … but to have a strong culture and great productivity you must have a collaborative environment,” he said.

Many of Bloomreach's products like email, technology around ChatGPT can be a co-author of the message by writing a draft for the author, he says.

“Whether we use ChatGPT or another OpenAI technology is to be determined,” he says. “We believe the technology is powerful”

Bloomreach has built its products around AI for years. Customers recognized significant increases in critical ecommerce metrics in 2022, using the company’s personalized email campaigns, features for testing, composable commerce architectures, and more to drive personalized experiences across digital channels.

On Black Friday, Bloomreach customers, for example, sent 331 million emails, up 72% compared with the prior year, and sent 3.8 million SMS messages, up 50%.