Needle raises $1.2m to help optimize ecommerce marketing with AI

(From left) Needle founders Jeannie Nguyen, Serene Gan, Rachelle Yee, and Kiyan Foroughi / Photo credit: Needle

Needle, an AI-powered marketing platform from Singapore, has raised US$1.2 million in its pre-seed round led by Iterative, with participation from Ethos Fund and Goldbell Financial Services. Angel investors, including Rainforest founder JJ Chai, also joined the round.

The fresh capital will be used to expand Needle’s team, consisting of data scientists, AI trainers, and engineers.

Funding details

• Funding amount: US$1,200,000
• Lead investor: Iterative
• Other investors: Ethos Fund, Goldbell Financial Services, JJ Chai
• Stage: Early Stage
• Source

Needle helps ecommerce brands optimize their marketing activities. By analyzing data from various platforms, Needle provides personalized recommendations and automates campaign creation, helping firms reduce costs and improve return on investment.

“New brands need to find customers on multiple channels and transact with them on multiple platforms,” Needle co-founder Kiyan Foroughi said. “At Needle, we want to help founders cut through the noise, make sense of their data, and point them where to focus.”

According to a recent report from the Boston Consulting Group, generative AI has already been injected into core marketing functions. In a survey, the company found that 70% of its respondents are already using the tech, while 19% are at their testing phases.

The respondents use AI for tasks such as content generation, insight generation, and market segmentation.

See also: How generative AI can transform banking via bots and streamlining the backend

Needle said early customers who have implemented the company’s tactics have increased baseline revenue by 1.5x over a five-month period. These clients can also complete the same amount of workload as a marketing team twice their size, Needle added.

Its clients include direct-to-consumer brands such as August Society, Indosole, and Our Bralette Club.

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