Xeno, the commerce marketing automation engine that guarantees incremental revenue has raised $1.6 million in a seed round from global funds including early Klaviyo backer TJ Mahony’s Vinyl Capital, Ankur Nagpal’s Vibe Capital, Java Capital & Angel Invest Ventures.
Curefoods founder Ankit Nagori, Mamaearth founder Varun Alagh, Apache Cassandra’s Prashant Malik, CRED’s Kunal Shah & Miten Sampat, Haptik founder Aakrit Vaish, Loginext founder Dhruvil Sanghvi, Profitwheel founder Vivek Bhargava, Fynd founder Farooq Adam, Verlinvest’s Arjun Vaidya, Tracxn founder Abhishek Goyal and several other founders/ operators also participated in the round.
Commenting on the fundraising, Pranav Ahuja, co-founder & CEO, Xeno said, “At Xeno, we’re on a mission to enable over 100,000 brands to build experiences & marketing specific to an individual customer. This might feel like a solved problem, but it isn’t. Just see the SMS’s you get on your phone. This fundraise, mostly from entrepreneurs who’ve personally experienced this problem, is further validation of our mission.”
Xeno plans to utilize the funding to expand its workforce across engineering, product, marketing, sales, and customer success. It is hiring for multiple roles and plans to double its team size in 2022. “Our workforce is the engine behind our success, and we are poised to achieve accelerated growth this year owing to the superiority of our platform and our team’s unmatched capabilities. Therefore, a significant portion of the fundraising will be invested in building our team strength,” said Pranav Ahuja.
Varun Alagh, co-founder & CEO of Mamaearth added, “The future of retail is omnichannel and the most important metric continues to be driving repeats. As the D2C (direct-to-consumer) space crosses $100 billion by 2025, every brand will require commerce marketing automation solutions to compete & win. This market timing combined with Pranav and Ayushmaan’s deep understanding of the D2C space makes me believe Xeno will build a large company.”
Xeno’s easy-to-integrate customer intelligence & engagement engine makes D2C brands competitive with the largest e-commerce platforms and allows them to reduce customer acquisition costs, increase website conversions & maximize repeat sales. “In my opinion, online shopping across industries like beauty, fashion, groceries, essentials, etc., is undergoing a massive shift and 5G will take this to a whole new dimension towards the end of this year. I am delighted that our clients trust us and entirely rely on our expertise to meet their brand vision. As we move ahead, we are excited to deliver data-driven personalized experiences through AI, ML, Big Data, and other emerging technologies that ensure our clients remain market leaders,” said Ayushmaan Kapoor, Co-founder & COO, Xeno.
More than 50 brands including digitally native brands and traditional players have achieved a double-digit increase in repeat sales using Xeno. Jack & Jones, Vero Moda, Forever New, Kama Ayurveda, Colorbar, Apparel Group, SSIPL (Lotto, Sports Station), Kaya Clinic, Barbeque Nation, Amante, Taco Bell, Heads Up For Tails, Chumbak and more customer-first brands are already using Xeno.
“Xeno caught our eye because the team, architecture, and vision reminded me of when we first invested in Klaviyo… but operating in markets that behave quite differently. Most impressive was the traction and quality of product Xeno established on minimal capital – which are typically hallmarks of exceptional entrepreneurs,” said TJ Mahony, Founder & Partner, Vinyl Capital.
The AI-powered CRM platform has enabled large retailers & D2C brands like Levi’s, Tommy Hilfiger, Forever New, Jack & Jones, Vero Moda, Forest Essentials, Kama Ayurveda, Taco Bell & Nando’s to increase repeat sales by 11%. Its superior expertise in building individual customer persona and creating more relevant marketing campaigns across SMS, email, Whatsapp, Facebook & Instagram helps brands keep personalization at the core of all interventions.
