SaaS platform Netcore invests $100 mn in American digital commerce firm Unbxd

Home-grown SaaS company Netcore, a leader in customer communication, engagement, and retention, has invested close to $100 million to acquire a majority stake in US-based e-commerce product discovery platform, Unbxd Inc. The investment will help Netcore strengthen its digital experience platform.

Nishant Jain, Chief Strategy Officer and Head of M&A, Netcore Cloud told Business Today, “We are investing in Unbxd Inc., a US-based search-personalisation company to strengthen our digital experience platform. Unbxd’s intelligent search solutions significantly improve retention and conversions for leading e-commerce retailers/ B2C brands in the USA, UK, and Australia. This includes marquee brands like Mattress Firm, Express, Ashley Homestore, Home Shopping Network, Advance Auto Parts, The Children's Place, Mitre10, Kookai, and many others. The company deploys self-learning AI/ML models and advanced algorithms to deliver personal recommendation and merchandising controls.”

Presently, Unbxd empowers 3.5 per cent of all US e-commerce on-site search queries spread across 150+ clients. The company also has a wide presence in 40+ countries and provides intelligent site search to more than 1,200 e-commerce sites.

According to Jain, Unbxd's AI-powered search optimisation and relevance solutions complements Netcore's personalisation product suite, positioning Netcore Cloud as one of the leading digital experience platforms (DXP) globally. This deal will also position Netcore Cloud as a one-stop marketing stack for digital commerce. Existing Netcore Cloud and Unbxd customers will get a full-stack solution on a single platform –- from email marketing, merchandising, product recommendation to search personalisation. This eliminates the need for multiple integrations and customers can seamlessly leverage data across the platform. The investment gives Netcore Cloud the much-needed 'right to win' new customers in the D2C and digital commerce market with the hyper-personalised solution offering tailored for this market.

Responding to our question on whether the acquisition will help Netcore expand in other regions, Jain responded, “From a business growth perspective, we foresee a significant increase in revenue and customer base from the US market. We have been growing our platform business by 40-50 per cent year-on-year (YoY) in the last 3 years. And our objective is to continue this momentum of growth for the next few years. We are working towards achieving an ARR of $150 million and strongly believe that this acquisition will play a key role in realising that within the next two years. This investment reinforces our focus on North America and other developed markets with significant growth potential.”

Netcore has been aggressively working towards delivering an “Intelligent Digital Experience” to consumers across all the touchpoints. In the last three, Netcore has acquired three companies, the first being Quinto.ai (Conversational AI platform) followed by Boxx.ai (product recommendation) and Hansel.io (product experience).  All the investments have been funded through internal accruals.