A message from the CEO: Xeno raises $1.6M to bring commerce marketing automation to emerging markets

Ayushmaan & I started Xeno over 6 years ago building a tablet loyalty program product for neighborhood restaurants & retailers. We profitably scaled that business to over 500 paying customers and a few hundred thousand dollars in revenue before making the toughest decision of our life. The decision to move on from the tablet-based loyalty program (a story from another time).

While figuring out what to do next, we spoke to over 100 marketers at large retailers & D2C brands and we realized two things. Each marketer is still struggling to understand customer behavior & more importantly how to use their deep customer understanding to create marketing campaigns that customers actually want. This might feel like a solved problem, but it isn’t. Just see the SMSs you get on your phone.
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At Xeno, we’re on a mission to enable over 100,000 brands to build experiences & marketing specific to an individual customer. This fundraise, mostly from entrepreneurs who’ve personally experienced this problem is further validation of our mission.

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The same mission has allowed us to be where we are today. Today, I am very proud to announce that Xeno has raised $1.6 million in a seed round from global funds including early Klaviyo backer TJ Mahony’s Vinyl Capital, Ankur Nagpal’s Vibe Capital, Java Capital & Angel Invest Ventures.

Today, more than 50 brands including digitally native brands and traditional players like Jack & Jones, Vero Moda, Forever New, Kama Ayurveda, Colorbar, Apparel Group, SSIPL (Lotto, Sports Station), Kaya Clinic, Barbeque Nation, Amante, Taco Bell, Heads Up For Tails, Chumbak and more customer-first brands are already using Xeno.

What we are proudest about is the fact that brands have achieved a double-digit increase in repeat sales using Xeno.

I am delighted that our customers trust us and rely on our expertise to meet their brand’s CRM vision. As we move ahead, we are radically increasing our investment to deliver data-driven customer marketing & experiences through AI, ML, Big Data, and other emerging technologies that ensure our customers remain market leaders.

This success for our customers so far and in the future has been driven by an amazing team of co-owners at Xeno. We’re using this fundraise to double down on that team. We plan to hire across engineering, product, marketing, sales, and customer success. Join the team of co-owners.

And finally, to everyone on the journey with us–our incredible team, investors, and most importantly, our customers– thank you! This has been an incredible ride so far, and there is a lot more coming down the pipe.

Pranav Ahuja
Founder & CEO