Persado, the US-based creator of a platform that generates cognitive textual content, completed a $30m series C round featuring payment services provider American Express and financial services firm Citi yesterday.
The corporates, which invested through their American Express Ventures and Citi Ventures units respectively, were joined by investment bank Goldman Sachs, which led the round, Bain Capital Ventures and StarVest Partners.
Persado has built a platform that uses natural language processing and machine learning algorithms to generate marketing copy in real time, enabling businesses to shape their campaigns to different audiences.
The company was spun out of digital marketing company Upstream in 2012 with $19m of funding from its former parent.
Alex Vratskides, Persado’s co-founder and CEO, said: “This latest round of funding will enable us to continue investing in distribution and product development.
“It will also accelerate our expansion into more digital channels and potentially other sectors beyond marketing, such as pharmaceutical adherence, fitness and personal motivation, civic engagement, human resources and more.”
Citi Ventures, American Express Ventures, StarVest Partners and Bain Capital Ventures previously supplied $21m in series B funding to Persado in January 2015. It has now raised $85m in funding altogether.