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At Viola Growth, we see about 200 growth companies every year and invest in maybe two or three of them (just a little over 1%). That means when we invest in a company, we have ‘checked every box’ when it comes to the criteria that’s important to us. Or in other words, that ‘all the stars were aligned’ at exactly the right time and place for the investment to happen.
Dynamic Yield is the kind of company, that the more you study it, the more you understand it. During the due diligence process, the more we explored, the deeper was our appreciation of the company, its team, the vision and the technology.
Following the announcement of a $32M Series D Funding in Dynamic Yield last week, I thought I’d share the story of why our perspective has evolved and how the company not only became a crucial guide for us when it came to capitalizing on the future of personalized experiences, but also the be-all and end-all for the technology that supports it.
Personalization is now table stakes
We live in an era where time is limited and costs are high. Neither businesses nor consumers want to spend too much time searching for what they need. These days we want everything handed to us on a silver platter, which has given rise to the necessity of personalization that we now expect everywhere – when we buy, choose services, and make decisions. We at Viola Growth believe that all marketing initiatives will eventually include personalized deliverables that are tailored specifically to existing or potential customers. That’s why Dynamic Yield’s platform is a must-have tool for any organization that’s getting on board the personalization train, which we believe everyone should be on (if they aren’t already).
One platform to rule them all
As in many huge, growing markets, the ‘personalization solutions’ of the world include multiple players, many of whom started with one very small feature or in a remote, niche area. Once those players saw how this opportunity was evolving, they too adapted, doing their best to “join the party.” Only, Dynamic Yield understood long before others the enormity of the market, lending them the widest vision and best execution to tap into it from its infancy. In fact, Dynamic Yield’s powerful end-to-end product aims to extend even into the physical world, powering individualized experiences beyond web – across kiosks, call centers, POS systems, IoT devices and more.
The Dynamic Yield platform is embedded into digital tool stacks of various shapes and sizes and has proven such a core piece of technology for each, many have baked Dynamic Yield into the DNA of everything they do, piping all digital activities through the platform. This level of innovation is exactly why Dynamic Yield was recognized by Gartner as a Leader in its inaugural 2018 Magic Quadrant for Personalization Engines, and why we couldn’t feel more excited that our due diligence and conclusions were exactly in line with Gartner’s results, released only a couple of weeks ago.
Best-in-class team and execution
Dynamic Yield continues to grow more than 100% year over year with dozens of new customers, adding substantial marquis companies such as URBN Brands, Sephora SEA, Ikea, and many others to its already 200+ strong customer base. The company’s admirable feat is a testament to Dynamic Yield’s impressive execution and the founders’ ability to assemble an excellent management team – certainly one of the best we’ve seen – whose success will no doubt be further accelerated, especially with three of the senior managers being women!
Bearing these three important points in mind, we truly believe Dynamic Yield has the potential to create a “big story,” especially considering what the future will look like in an increasingly connected world.
We know it most certainly is a new entrant to Israel’s “big companies” club. This ‘unofficial club’ has been developing steadily through a major – albeit quiet – disruption over the last few years, taking Israeli-founded companies to the next level. This club includes companies like Monday.com, Payoneer, Zerto, SimilarWeb, ironSource, Outbrain, Walk.me, Appsflyer, to name a few, and of course Datorama, acquired just a couple of weeks ago by Salesforce for $850M.
Today more than ever before, more Israeli entrepreneurs have the ambition, technology, business models and talent-pool with which to grow big companies than we’ve seen in the past.
The growing number of financing deals over $30M (click to enlarge)
At the end of the day, we asked ourselves – does Dynamic Yield have all the ingredients to become a meaningful company? Considering the factors mentioned above – the boost received thanks to a growing global trend, technology and accolade-winning product, execution and team – these are all classic drivers that can lead a company to new heights.
The story behind Dynamic Yield and the quality of its management team are exactly the sort of things we look for when we invest in growth-stage companies. We congratulate them on reaching such impressive goals thus far and are excited to be a part of the next phase of their growth journey!
