Techweek Elevator: Signal

Techweek Elevator is the elevator pitch as a two-minute read. We spotlight up-and-coming movers and shakers for investors and startup enthusiasts.

Mission
Signal is on a mission to help marketers around the world get closer to their customers. In today’s always-on world, consumers are using an average of three to five connected devices to interact with their favorite brands — and they’re constantly hopping between those devices based on their needs at any moment.

Meanwhile, marketers are using as many as 30 disparate technologies and platforms to make all those digital experiences possible. Unfortunately, most of those solutions don’t talk to each other, and marketers are left drowning in customer engagement data that is too fragmented to act on, all the while getting further from their customers. The result is the inability to consistently deliver meaningful messages, which can hurt brand loyalty, damage customer relationships, and negatively impact conversions and marketing ROI.

Signal was founded six years ago with a patented, built-from-scratch solution that gives marketers one real-time platform to effectively collect all of this customer data across channels, stitch that data together into a single view of the customer, and use that single view to power relevant marketing and addressable media that reaches known customers in real-time.

Market
Signal estimates that marketers currently spend approximately $500M on technologies that manage offline and online customer data for the purposes of marketing activation. Signal’s opportunity is only expected to grow as marketers around the globe realize the power in leveraging their own data to reach known customers across channels — a discipline also known as people-based marketing. In fact, 9 in 10 US media buyers in leading global markets where Signal has a presence said that they and their clients are increasing people-based media buys.

Model
Signal’s SaaS platform was purpose-built with several key capabilities to help marketers harness their customer data to connect in meaningful, effective ways:

• Addressable marketing: Signal’s identity graph gives marketers access to their own customer profiles so they can recognize customers across devices and channels and understand their immediate needs and wants.
• Always-on recognition: Marketers who can recognize customers and target them when they’re in market are more likely to make the sale. This can only be achieved by harnessing live intent signals. Rather than relying on batched processes, campaigns, or decaying cookies as other solutions do, Signal’s platform is always-on so it recognizes customers immediately across any channel, enabling marketers and advertisers to respond in real-time.
• Speed: It takes less than 50 milliseconds from data collection to data connection, and 1 million records can be onboarded in less than 30 minutes rather than days, using Signal’s Platform.

Signal currently has offices in Europe, Asia, Latin America, and Australia and is expected to grow to 200 employees globally by the end of 2016 as it continues expanding its team and technology platform.

Management (who)
Signal was founded six years ago by Marc Kiven, Founder and CRO, Mike Sands, CEO, and Eric Lunt, CTO. Because the founders made strategic decisions to expand internationally, chase the biggest customers, and secure the best talent (Signal has recruited from the likes of Groupon, Orbitz and FeedBurner), the company has experienced high double-digit growth since inception.

Momentum (what, so far)
Signal has secured over $70M in funding to date, including a recently-closed $30M round that was led by I2A with participation from other prestigious investors, including Pritzker Group Venture Capital, Baird Capital, EPIC Ventures, and Silicon Valley Bank. The recent investment will be used to accelerate and expand Signal’s technology platform and organization globally to take advantage of the strong and growing demand for addressable marketing solutions around the world.

Crain’s recently named Signal the #1 fastest-growing company in Chicago on the Crain’s Chicago Business’s 2016 Fast 50. The company was also ranked #51 on the 2015 Inc 5000 list (and third-fastest growing software company in the country) and #11 on Deloitte’s 2015 Technology Fast 500. Signal’s three co-founders also received the 2015 EY Entrepreneur of the Year award.

Signal now helps more than 20,000 companies around the world uncover the power and value in their customer data. Brands like Allstate, Crate & Barrel, GAP, JetBlue, Macy’s, GM, Audi, P&G, Kraft, Target, Kohl’s, Nordstrom, Sears, and Starwood use Signal’s technology to provide more personalized communications, improve customer experiences, and increase marketing ROI.

Learn more about Signal here.