Funds and Accounts managed by BlackRock leads the Series B round as brands around the world use data to capitalize on the growth of the experience economy
AnyRoad, the leader in Experience Relationship Management (ERM), today announced that it closed a $47M Series B funding round led by funds and accounts managed by BlackRock with participation from Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Runa Capital, and Kaiser Permanente. Existing investors Rally Ventures, Precursor Ventures and Day One Ventures, as well as newcomers Commonfund and Corner Ventures, also participated in the oversubscribed round.
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The experience economy is booming as the world reopens and brands are taking note, with 81% saying their event and experiential budgets will match or exceed pre-pandemic levels this year. However, brands typically know very little about who is participating in these live experiences. Disparate, siloed experiential data makes analysis difficult, expensive and slow, and there is limited ROI with no actionable insights. AnyRoad solves that problem as the industry’s first ERM platform, a new category of software that empowers brands to build stronger relationships with consumers through experiential programs grounded in data and consumer insight. Used by leading brands, including Budweiser, Honda, Michaels and Tabasco, AnyRoad is an analytics platform at its core and supports everything from in-person events to online experiences to experiential retail to global field marketing.
“We are living in an era in which a majority of consumers prefer to spend their money on experiences versus things. Car ownership is declining. Retail brands are shutting down weekly. Marie Kondo has built a global brand telling us to throw away the hard-earned possessions that no longer bring us joy. ‘Things’ have become commoditized,” said Jonathan Yaffe, co-founder and CEO of AnyRoad. “The top brands in the world know that their future depends on creating impactful experiences, but understanding customers requires more than just transactional surveys and loyalty programs. AnyRoad is finally helping companies build transformative experiences, grounded in analytics, that capture the hearts of their customers.”
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The funding comes during a time of significant growth for AnyRoad. The company tripled top line revenue in 2021, retained 100 percent of its customers during the pandemic, and signed on new brands at Diageo, Beam Suntory, Unilever, and Anheuser-Busch – all despite the pandemic’s impact on the experiential industry. More than 400 brands delivering 200,000 virtual, in-person or hybrid experiences every month now rely on AnyRoad to optimize their experiential programs and capture meaningful data to forge stronger relationships with consumers. Michaels, for example, turns to AnyRoad to scale its live classes (online and in-store) to over a million consumers a year. Diageo turns to AnyRoad to personalize experiences at 18 brand home locations, including Johnnie Walker Princes Street, a new state-of-the-art whiskey tourism facility in Edinburgh.
“More and more brands are using live, virtual, and real life experiences to connect with consumers to build loyalty and grow revenue,” said David Ulevitch, general partner at Andreessen Horowitz. “AnyRoad is uniquely positioned to empower these brands with the technology and insights they need to grow their investment in experiences, whether they are online or in-person.”
AnyRoad will use the financing to support ongoing investment in product development, integrations and go-to-market strategy and plans to significantly scale the product with a focus on hiring talent in data science, engineering, machine learning and other departments.
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