Yotpo gets $22m funding to help businesses go viral

Image by Tech in Asia.

Marketing startup Yotpo today announced the completion of a US$22 million round of financing led by Bessemer Venture Partners. Its total funding now stands at US$50 million.

The startup works with over 150,000 businesses to generate content such as videos, reviews, and photos, then uses them to drive web traffic and boost customer engagement. Yotpo amplifies presence across social media channels, email, and search, helping its enterprise clients increase sales.

This could involve writing a review, posting a picture, or making a short video.

Since last year, Yotpo claims it has seen a triple-digit year-on-year increase across all major metrics including revenue, volume of content collected, and number of customers.

Once a business signs up with Yotpo, its platform analyzes historical data to understand how best to convince existing customers to generate content. This could be either writing a review, posting a picture, or producing a short video. It then hits people with customized promotions via email to have the best chance at getting them to write a review.

The premise is to get customers to endorse brands in their own words.

“With this funding, we’ll be able to build out our platform to include more features, more integrations and more forms of user-generated content,” said Yotpo CEO Tomer Tagrin. “In the upcoming months, we’ll begin our global expansion with multiple offices outside the US and Israel, and we’ll add 250 people to the Yotpo family. This funding also gives us the option to explore strategic acquisitions.”

Yotpo’s funding round saw participation from existing investors such as Innovation Endeavors, Marker, Vintage Investment Partners, Blumberg Capital, and Access Industries alongside other angels.

The company also announced the hiring of a new vice president, Jeff DiBartolo, formerly of Salesforce Marketing Cloud, and the addition of a new board member, Bessemer partner Adam Fisher.

“Yotpo is answering the need many enterprise businesses have to collect and amplify content from their customers as a means of increasing traffic, trust, and sales,” Fisher said.