Goldman Sachs doubles down on MoEngage in new round to fuel global expansion

MoEngagea customer engagement platform that works with consumer brands in 75 countries, says it has raised new funding led by its existing investor, Goldman Sachs Alternatives, to accelerate global growth and bring more AI to its platform.

All told, $100 million worth of shares just traded, with approximately 60% primary and 40% secondary, as part of MoEngage’s Series F round. The funding marks the entry of Indian venture capital firm A91 Partners as a new investor co-leading the round with Goldman Sachs Alternatives. It has now raised a total of $250 million in funding, according to MoEngage.

As consumer brands increasingly rely on digital channels to reach customers, competition for attention has increased. That has pushed companies to use the customer data they already have to deliver more personalized marketing. While established marketing platforms continue to serve this space, brands are now looking to AI-driven tools that can automate decision-making and reduce manual labor. MoEngage is positioning itself in this segment with its Merlin AI suite, which allows marketing and product teams to launch campaigns faster and improve targeting efficiency.

“We help B2C brands engage with their customers more effectively by leveraging the first-party data they already have,” said Raviteja Dodda (pictured above), co-founder and CEO of MoEngage, in an interview.

The eleven-year-old startup focused mainly on India and Southeast Asia for the first seven years. Over the past four years, it has expanded its reach into new markets, particularly North America, which now contributes more than 30% of its revenue, Dodda told TechCrunch. About 25% of sales come from Europe and the Middle East, and the remaining 45% from India and Southeast Asia.

Goldman Sachs’ support in the latest financing will help further strengthen MoEngage’s global presence. The investment bank also co-led the startups Series E round of $77 million together with B Capital in June 2022.

“Today’s investors know the most about the company, in terms of how the company is performing, and they know everything good and bad,” Dodda said. “[Goldman Sachs] Leading the round is a strong validation of our fundamentals.”

Over the past two to three years, MoEngage has invested heavily in generative AI and decision-making AI capabilities. These efforts are reflected in the Merlin AI suite, which Dodda says includes a suite of AI agents built for marketing use.

Some of these agents act as copywriters, helping consumer brands craft marketing messages, create multiple variations of a campaign, or generate natural language text along with relevant images. The suite also includes decision AI tools that help brands determine which customers should receive a particular message or offer, on which channel and at what time, Dodda said.

MoEngage currently serves more than 1,350 consumer brands globally, including SoundCloud, McAfee, Kayak, Domino’s, Deutsche Telekom and Travelodge, as well as prominent Indian household names such as Swiggy, Flipkart, Ola, Airtel and Tata. About 60% of the company’s revenue comes from traditional businesses, while the remaining 40% comes from Internet-focused businesses. The platform also partners with more than 25 banks worldwide and several major insurers, including JPMorgan Chase, Citibank and India’s largest insurer, Life Insurance Corporation (LIC).

Some of these brands previously used marketing platforms from established companies such as Adobe, Oracle and Salesforce. MoEngage has since acquired more than 300, fueling growth in North America and the EMEA regions.

In one case, SoundCloud migrated more than 120 million users to MoEngage within 12 weeks, using AI-powered insights to accelerate product launches and improve retention among its paying users, said Hope Barrett, senior director of martech at SoundCloud.

Several MoEngage customers also relied on multiple point solutions to perform specific tasks. The company helped consolidate these tools into a unified platform to reduce costs and streamline marketing activities.

“If you look at all our brands, whether it’s a bank or an e-commerce company, they use MoEngage to unify all their customer data from all touchpoints. It could be their offline stores, website, mobile app [or other channels],” Dodda told TechCrunch.

Without disclosing exact figures, Dodda said MoEngage grew about 40% year-on-year last year and aims to maintain a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 35% over the next three years. The company also expects to be quarterly adjusted EBITDA positive by the end of the current fiscal year.

MoEngage sees companies like Braze and CleverTap, as well as legacy marketing clouds from Adobe, Oracle and Salesforce, among its top competitors.

The startup has approximately 800 employees spread across 15 offices worldwide. It plans to expand its workforce, especially in North America and Europe, by scaling its customer success, support, sales and marketing teams to deepen its presence in those markets. MoEngage also plans to develop additional AI capabilities and hire more talent to support those efforts.

MoEngage plans to be IPO-ready within the next few years, Dodda told TechCrunch, without sharing a specific timeline for the IPO.

“We see an opportunity to build a multi-billion dollar business in our space,” he stated.