Summit Partners heads up major Akeneo funding round
Akeneo, a US-based SaaS venture that provides product information management solutions for omnichannel retailers and brands, has raised $46 million in a funding round led by Summit Partners. Existing investors Alven, Partech, and Salesforce Ventures, as well as Akeneo’s board member Stephan Dietrich, also took part.
The venture lays claim to more than 60,000 live implementations, with clients including Sephora, Fossil and Staples CA. “In an omnichannel world, PXM represents the next evolution of product information management, which is becoming the new CRM of product data,” says Steffan Peyer, a principal at Summit Partners who will join the Akeneo Board of Directors.
“We believe Akeneo’s highly-focused product approach, as well as its hyper-connectivity with the broader commerce stack, makes it uniquely capable of addressing complex and specific customer product information needs.”
Akeneo says that it will invest further in its sales and marketing efforts in the US, while doubling down on research and development, including product data intelligence to boost product information automation and monitor product experience quality. The company also plans to hire more than 100 additional staff in the upcoming year.
“Product experience management is becoming a critical business application for brands and distributors to win in omnichannel retail,” said Fred de Gombert, CEO and Co-founder, Akeneo. “Today’s consumers average more than five touchpoints before they make a purchasing decision, so it is increasingly important for brands to use a platform that delivers an integrated and consistent product experience.”
“With Summit’s extensive experience scaling global SaaS businesses and our existing investors’ continued support, we look forward to helping more brands and retail merchants deliver seamless product experiences with even greater efficiency and scale.”