NEW YORK, Oct. 8, 2024 -- Tildei, a pioneering conversational marketing platform, today announced its emergence from stealth with $6 million in seed funding. The company aims to transform how brands interact with customers in social channels like Instagram and WhatsApp by leveraging artificial intelligence to enable personalized, intelligent conversations at scale. Susa Ventures led the round with participation from Ludlow Ventures, Gradient Ventures, Lerer Hippeau, Vine Ventures, MXV Capital, Marcelo Claure, Jason Lemkin, and other angel investors. The company was incubated out of MXV Capital, a NYC based early stage fund.
Elevate Marketers. Empower Customers.
Tildei will use the funding to further develop the platform's AI capabilities, expand its channel support, and grow the team.
In an era where consumers increasingly prefer chat and social apps for communication, Tildei offers a paradigm shift from traditional mass messaging marketing approaches. The platform empowers brands to engage in real-time and context-aware conversations with customers which can range from answering basic queries to assisting with purchases. According to a study by eMarketer, in 2023, consumers spent an average of 151 minutes a day in social and chat apps like Instagram, TikTok, and WhatsApp. Tildei's vision is to meet consumers in their platform of choice and power conversations where they are happening.
Tildei was founded by marketing technology industry veterans Mark Ghermezian, Kevin Dutra, and Manisha Shah. Ghermezian was the co-founder and founding CEO of Braze (BRZE), a lifecycle marketing platform that IPO'd in November 2021. Dutra and Shah were founding team members at Rebel, which was acquired by Salesforce in 2018.
"The proliferation of LLMs could not have come at a better time. Today's customers expect personalized, immediate interactions. But that's out of reach for the average brand," said Ghermezian, co-founder and CEO of Tildei. "Our platform bridges the gap between this expectation and the limitations of current marketing tools, allowing brands to connect directly with their customers in social channels like Instagram and WhatsApp."
The first channels supported by Tildei's AI conversational platform are Instagram and WhatsApp, leveraging their respective 2 and 3 billion global active users. The company plans to add additional social channels this year, quickly expanding to help brands engage with customers wherever they are. The AI powered platform understands both a brand's voice and the nuances of each channel so that marketers can take advantage of templates, quick replies, and other features for the best experience regardless of what social app is hosting the conversation.
"Tildei represents the future of marketing in a world dominated by chat and social apps," said Chad Byers, co-founder and General Partner at Susa Ventures. "What impressed us most about Tildei is not just their innovative approach to conversational marketing, but also the team's deep expertise in the martech space. With their AI-driven platform, Tildei is poised to revolutionize how brands engage with customers, creating more meaningful and personalized interactions at scale. We're excited to support Tildei as they lead this shift in customer engagement."
"Brands must evolve their engagement strategies and we want to be on the forefront of that," said Felipe Araujo, Chief Digital Officer of Cariuma. "Today's customer is no longer satisfied with one-way marketing messages. They want real-time connections and quicker feedback. Tildei made it easy to get started in both conversational marketing and a new channel. We are excited to see how this develops."
About Tildei
Tildei enables brands to have meaningful conversations with their customers at scale. The platform makes it simple for marketers to create engaging conversations, capture data, and convert customers through truly personal interactions. Tildei was founded in 2022 and is based in New York City. For more information, visit www.tildei.com.
About Susa Ventures
Susa Ventures has been leading pre-seed and seed stage rounds since 2013. We invest $1m-$4m into software, internet and technology-enabled businesses. Each investor at Susa partners with only 2-3 startups per year, so each relationship is meaningful to us. Since inception, we've been partners to Robinhood (HOOD), Flexport, Viz, Stord, Human Interest, and many other unicorns, all from the seed stage. For more information, visit susaventures.com.
About Gradient Ventures
Gradient Ventures has been investing at the forefront of artificial intelligence since 2017. We are led by former founders, technical experts, and domain specialists, who know how to take an idea to product-market-fit and beyond. Gradient Ventures is headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area. For more information, visit www.gradient.com.
About Lerer Hippeau
Lerer Hippeau is an early-stage venture capital firm founded and operated in New York City. Our portfolio includes more than 400 leading enterprise and consumer businesses including Guideline, MIRROR, Blockdaemon, K Health, Allbirds, ZenBusiness, and Thrive. We're experienced operators who invest early and stay in our founders' corners as they build iconic companies. Learn more at lererhippeau.com.
About MXV Capital
m]x[v Capital is a New York-based early-stage venture capital firm dedicated to funding and founding the future of B2B enterprise SaaS. m]x[v brings a founder and operator perspective to the table, providing hands-on support to help early-stage companies successfully launch, scale, and grow their businesses. For more information, visit www.mxv.vc.
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