Feature
Medallia has been throwing around some impressive numbers in recent months: the Palo Alto, Calif.-based customer experience management (CXM) provider claims year-over-year revenues tripled in the last 18 months — and revenues grew 229 percent between fiscal years 2009 and 2013.
Today it has another striking number to toss around: $150 million.
The company announced today that it's raised $150 million from investors in a round led by VC firm Sequoia Capital, a previous investor. Medallia first raised venture funding in late 2011, and has now raised a total of $255 million.
It plans to use the latest investment for research and development in the B2B Software-as-a-Software (SaaS) market and to further what an official called a clear lead among enterprise clients in customer experience management software.
Bigger Things to Come
Medallia’s software helps companies capture feedback from customers across every channel, transform that data into insight in real time and make it actionable.
Dorian Stone, vice president of customer experience strategy and marketing for Medallia, said the funding represents two things: an increase in confidence in the company because it has “bigger things to come in the future than in the past. We’re making bigger bets. And it also represents the maturing of the organization. We really are thinking now we are much more of a global organization with formalization of some of our offices.”
Growth Spurts
Medallia has built new offices in France and New York. It already had them in Palo Alto, London, Hong Kong, Buenos Aires and Australia.
In April 2014, Medallia officials told us they had 400 employees. Nine months later, they had more than 600 worldwide. And today it’s approaching 750, according to Stone.
In May, Medallia announced an alliance with Deloitte Consulting and said it planned to collaborate with Deloitte Digital, which expanded its practice to implement Medallia’s CEM platform for Fortune 2000 companies. Deloitte in the deal also offers Medallia as part of its existing transformation, marketing and cloud application capabilities. Toyota, SAP, Mazda and DIRECTV are also Medallia clients.
One of Sequoia Capital’s partners, Douglas Leone, is a board member for Medallia. It’s also recently added LinkedIn and Palo Alto Networks board member and audit committee chair Stan Meresman, and former Netflix CMO Leslie Kilgore to its board.
“Medallia is helping the world's top brands increase loyalty, grow their businesses and deliver unforgettable customer experiences,” Leone said in a statement. "Their rocketing growth will only continue as more companies recognize that in today's age, effectively managing the customer experience is no longer a choice. It's a win-or-lose necessity."
Learning Opportunities
Webinar
Jun
1
How organizations can design, build and run Generative AI into the Customer Experience
Discover how to drive enhanced CX through Generative AI
Webinar
Jun
6
The Future of Social Media: Emerging Trends and How to Stay Ahead of the Curve
The impact of emerging technologies like AI on social media
Webinar
Jun
7
The Building Blocks of Personalization
This webinar will explore how personalization can create powerful ecommerce shopping experience.
Webinar
Jun
13
The Future of Contact Centers with AI at the Helm
Learn how to balance human intuition and interaction with the potential uses of AI to create delightful and lasting CX
Webinar
Jun
20
3 Steps to Unlock Your Customer Data and Drive Revenue
Discover how Twilio Segment’s #1 Customer Data Platform helps implement data-driven strategies.
Webinar
On demand
AI for Marketers: Optimize Personalization Across the Funnel
Understand the benefits of utilizing AI across your entire marketing stack
Webinar
Jun
1
How organizations can design, build and run Generative AI into the Customer Experience
Discover how to drive enhanced CX through Generative AI
Webinar
Jun
6
The Future of Social Media: Emerging Trends and How to Stay Ahead of the Curve
The impact of emerging technologies like AI on social media
The US market currently represents the biggest piece of Medallia’s revenue pie -- about 40 percent, according to Stone.
“From that standpoint, that’s where a lot of companies that are shaping this space are based out of and you see revenues reflect that,” Stone said. “You have the classic scenario where you’re actually growing fastest in other markets, so Western Europe in particular and Australia are two where our growth is we exciting.”
Going Forward
Medallia down the road will focus on a few themes: (1) take unstructured data and drive value from it (2) emphasize self-service and make it about innovation and (3) build an open ecosystem where innovation and co-development are encouraged.
“One thing we are driving in the market is a shift from customer experience management to operational customer experience management,” Stone said.
In other words, expand beyond that small team that handles all an organization’s customer experience strategy and “broaden things” where everyone that has an operations role has access and uses this information.
The premise behind the Medallia platform? The customer must always have seat at the decision-making table.
R "Ray" Wang, principal analyst and founder at Constellation Research, told CMSWire that "what Medallia has done is shown how good customer experience analytics can jump-start growth at businesses."
