Public Company, Meet Startup: Demandware Snaps Up CQuotient

While most eyes have been on the IPOs of Wayfair and Hubspot this month, it’s good to remember the last batch of Boston-area tech companies that went public.

One of them is Demandware, a Burlington, MA-based maker of online shopping software for brands and retailers. The company had its IPO in 2012, and its stock price was up over $50 this morning, despite the downturn in the public markets; the firm’s market cap is around $1.8 billion.

Demandware (NYSE: [[ticker:DWRE]]) said on Tuesday it has acquired Boston-area startup CQuotient for an undisclosed price. The deal gives the larger company access to customer-level data science and analytics that it can apply to big brands and retailers to create “highly personalized shopping experiences,” says Demandware CEO Tom Ebling in a statement.

CQuotient got started in 2010 (see Q&A) and raised a $3 million funding round from Bain Capital Ventures. The company’s customers include Staples and Men’s Wearhouse.

CQuotient’s top executives, Rama Ramakrishnan and Graeme Grant, are joining Demandware in senior roles. Ramakrishnan and Grant originally met at ProfitLogic, a price-optimization software company that was bought by Oracle in 2005.

Demandware’s future depends on becoming the go-to tech provider for brands to sell their stuff across all digital platforms. The luxury market is especially important for the company, as Amazon and others own the commodity-level business online.

Author: Gregory T. Huang

Greg is a veteran journalist who has covered a wide range of science, technology, and business. As former editor in chief, he overaw daily news, features, and events across Xconomy's national network. Before joining Xconomy, he was a features editor at New Scientist magazine, where he edited and wrote articles on physics, technology, and neuroscience. Previously he was senior writer at Technology Review, where he reported on emerging technologies, R&D, and advances in computing, robotics, and applied physics. His writing has also appeared in Wired, Nature, and The Atlantic Monthly’s website. He was named a New York Times professional fellow in 2003. Greg is the co-author of Guanxi (Simon & Schuster, 2006), about Microsoft in China and the global competition for talent and technology. Before becoming a journalist, he did research at MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Lab. He has published 20 papers in scientific journals and conferences and spoken on innovation at Adobe, Amazon, eBay, Google, HP, Microsoft, Yahoo, and other organizations. He has a Master’s and Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT, and a B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.