Yotpo — the leader of user-generated content (UGC) marketing platforms — announced that it had raised an additional $51 million in their series D funding led by Access Industries (Claltech).
The company’s total funding has now reached $101 million, and their revenues have also quadrupled over the past 20 months.
Yotpo’s investors Bessemer Venture Partners, Marker LLC, Vintage Partners, Blumberg Capital, Rhodium and 2B Angels participated in the round of funding.
Vertex Ventures joined the funding round as a new investor.
Daniel Shinar, Access Industries’ head of Israeli tech investments and ClalTech CEO, will become a member of Yotpo’s board of directors.
Funding Purpose
According to the company, the $51 million that they received will be used “to meet the demand from high-growth commerce brands for an integrated user-generated content platform and accelerate product innovation, especially in artificial intelligence and machine learning.”
Compared to other seemingly similar solutions in the industry that focuses on photos and reviews, Yotpo’s integrated solution goes above and beyond by allowing businesses to curate, collect, manage, and even respond to every type of UGC that their users get — all within one platform.
By combining integrations, partnerships, and technology, the company enables businesses to leverage their customer’s content effectively throughout the buyer’s journey to increase sales, social proof, and trust.
Focus On Customer Experience
Tomer Tagrin, Yotpo’s CEO, says, “We’re living in a post-Amazon world where even big, established brands are collapsing because it’s impossible to compete with Amazon on price or fulfillment.”
He adds, “The only way commerce brands can win is through customer experience and building an authentic brand that people truly care about and talk about.”
Tagrin pointed out that with Yotpo, businesses can gather content from customers like photos, Q&As, and reviews to establish a stronger brand and improve their customer experience.
Tomer Tagrin (Right) along with Yotpo co-founder, Omri Cohen
Increased Interest From Commerce Brands
The company said that their data-driven post-purchase content requests have the “highest order-to-review conversion rates in the industry.”
Also, brands from emerging startups to established enterprises like TYR, Staples, and Everlast, use Yotpo.
Digital businesses like MVMT Watches, UnTUCKit, and Brooklinen have expressed interest on Yotpo, as well.
Investing In Artificial Intelligence
Along with Yotpo’s efforts to establish a vigorous infrastructure that serves brands at every stage of growth, the company said they’re direction is towards investing in product innovation, specifically in the areas of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning.
Tagrin said: “For us, AI isn’t a buzzword but a core technology already powering our solution today.”
He also added, “But we’re also seeing a real opportunity to incorporate deep learning to solve the most pressing challenges of commerce businesses. We’re just touching the surface of the potential here, and we’ll have exciting news coming soon.”
Enormous Respect
Shinar said they have nothing but “enormous respect” for Yotpo.
Shinar mentioned, “We’ve been working with Yotpo since 2014. We have gained enormous respect for what co-founders Tomer Tagrin and Omri Cohen have built – a company with a unique culture and exceptional execution skills. When we had the opportunity to double down, we didn’t hesitate.”
He also added, “Yotpo is answering the growing demand for an integrated user-generated content platform and they are becoming the next generation marketing platform for B2C companies.”
Meanwhile, Yotpo will use the additional funding to build out their enterprise-grade platform and continue their global expansion.
With Yotpo’s second U.S. office in Salt Lake and them hiring an additional 150 employees, the company’s total number of employees now reaches over 400 including their offices in Tel Aviv, London, and New York.
