Segment Raises $175M For Customer Data Infrastructure

Segment, a San Francisco-based customer data infrastructure company, has raised $175 million in a funding round led by existing investors Accel & GV.

New investors Meritech Capital, Thrive Capital, Y Combinator Continuity, e.ventures and Sapphire Ventures also participated in the round, which brings the startup’s total funding to $284 million. The raise gives Segment a $1.5 billion valuation, according to Bloomberg, who cited “a person familiar with the matter.”

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The premise behind the company is that traditional CRM (customer relationship management) “is no longer enough.” Segment wants to provide data infrastructure for companies looking to give their customers a seamless experience – while also being mindful of privacy around data.

Eight-year-old Segment says it plans to use the money toward a few initiatives, including opening “multiple new offices” across North America, Europe, Middle East and North Africa (EMEA), and Asia-Pacific “while significantly growing” its team. The company currently employs over 350 people in San Francisco, New York, Vancouver and Dublin. In FY2019, Segment told Crunchbase News it increased its employee headcount by 74 percent and expanded its global footprint, opening a EMEA headquarters in Dublin, Ireland.

Segment will also use the new funds to “accelerate the development and adoption” of its “Customer Data Infrastructure” platform, which is now being used in 71 countries. Enterprise customers include Intuit, IBM, VMware, and 21st Century Fox. The round will also help the startup invest in “further expanding its partner network.”

In a press release, Segment said: “Companies must use dozens of business applications in their customer data stack, but they don’t have the data infrastructure necessary to integrate these applications seamlessly or respect customer privacy preferences consistently.”

Vas Natarajan of Accel notes that his firm led Segment’s Series A in 2014.

“Segment transforms the way that businesses collect and manage customer data, with a particular emphasis on first-party data,” he said in the press release. “Combined with powerful governance and audience management tools, Segment is the backbone for how great companies sell, market, and support their customers.”

Illustration: Li-Anne Dias