that trend. Using behavioral analysis and other tracking tools, Embarke says it can automatically segment users based on their behavior, and send marketing messages to users at a time they’re most likely to actually click to open it.
The company introduced its first commercial product about four months ago, and has built about 5 million user behavior profiles that can be used to offer insights to its client companies. Embarke says it is consistently increasing the percentage of marketing e-mail that users open by 5 to 20 percent.
“These are not short-term gimmicky opens and clicks,” according to an Embarke blog post about the deal. “They’re long-term retention solutions that engage the user in ways they actually prefer. Their behavioral analysis and automation gets the right message to the right user at the right time…for each individual.”
Embarke says it takes only about 15 minutes to integrate its Web-based service with a customer. An e-mail sent by the company goes to Embarke, where it is analyzed and optimized (based on a behavioral analysis of each recipient) for delivery. Embarke says it forged its first partnership with SendGrid, an enterprise service provider that delivers more than 7 billion e-mails a month (more than 1 percent of the world’s non-spam e-mail) on behalf of more than 130,000 customers.
To Bsharah, one of the most important aspects is the local nature of the deal. Most of the investors are based in San Diego, and almost half of the capital was raised locally. “We went to Seattle, but for us, San Diego is home,” he says. “We’re bullish on the San Diego ecosystem, and it’s where we want to grow.” He’s even created pie charts to illustrate his point.
“What’s changing is that there are more companies, and more exciting companies coming up in San Diego, and the ecosystem here is doing a better job of curating these companies, and so they’re bubbling up to the top. And people are starting to pay attention.”
