Deal Radar 2008: Coremetrics

Coremetrics is an option for businesses looking to optimize online marketing efforts through analytics. Founded in May 1999, the company provides solutions to enhance marketing performance and yield high returns on online marketing investment.

The company offers the only web analytics platform that stores the clickstream of both customers and visitors to create LIVE (Lifetime Individual Visitor Experience) profiles. Coremetrics, with the help of LIVE profiles, allows businesses to see how visitors interact with sites and know whether their marketing campaigns are boosting traffic and sales. This helps them understand what customers want and pinpoint exactly where their campaign is going wrong. After identifying consumer behavior, Coremetrics integrates this data with digital marketing applications to target customers through intelligent marketing campaigns.

Coremetrics’ Software as a Service (SaaS) applications, including search and email marketing, generate high ROI on marketing investments. In 2007, the company introduced several new products—Marketing Attribution with 3D Marketing Analytics, Coremetrics 2008, Coremetrics SMB Solutions and LIVEmail 2.0—to its suite.

Customers use Coremetrics also for its visual representation capabilities to present data on online strategy and performance to stakeholders. Coremetrics also has a product that automates keyword performance management and implements intelligent bidding strategies to optimize spending on paid search terms for search engine marketing.

In May, the company announced the appointment of Kathi Kaplan as worldwide chief marketing officer to lead the strategic development of the company’s marketing initiatives. Kaplan is a marketing veteran with experience in companies like Apple, Borland Software, Business Objects and Silicon Graphics.

Earlier this year, the company also appointed Richard Sheppard as VP and general manager of EMEA to lead the development and expansion of Coremetrics in Europe. Prior to joining Coremetrics, Richard was CEO of the UK hosting company 7global; he has 20 years of experience in sales, sales management, SaaS and the analytics market.

Today, the company provides its expertise to more than 1,000 online businesses worldwide, with more than 87% percent of global customers confirming an ROI within 12 weeks and a claimed “$15 billion in ROI” this year. Coremetics announced over 70% growth in new business in 2007 and 61% annual growth over the past five years. Our estimate of the company’s revenue is in the $30-$40 Million range. The company was chosen by AlwaysOn Media as one of the Top 100 Private Companies award winners.

Coremetrics has raised a total of $153 million so far. It had raised $2 million in seed capital from investors including Constantin Partners, Garage.com and Selby Venture Partners; $14 million venture debt financing from Western Technology Investments; $15 million in a second round of financing from Highland Capital Partners and Accel Partners; $31 million in a third round of financing from Accel Partners and Highland Capital Partners; $31 million in a fourth round of financing from FTVentures, Accel Partners and Highland Capital Partners; and $60 million in a fifth round of financing from 3i, Accel Partners, FTVentures and Highland Capital Partners in April 2008.

Coremetrics managed to get through nuclear winter between 2000-2004, which cost them cash. Looks like investors supported them all through, and now they are starting to hit their stride, as another nuclear winter starts to set in. With $153 Million already invested in the company, they are in the same boat as Biz360, looking for an exit in a slow, dry market.

I maintain, that this is a perfect market for engineering roll-ups, and it looks like there are enough “trunks” in the web and marketing analytics space, that funds sitting on large piles of cash should look at putting them together. Perhaps the gating item would be the unrealistic expectations of investors who have stuck around for 9+ years in the company.

This segment is a part in the series : Deal Radar 2008