Listen to this article
Hightouch secures $80 million in Series C funding, bringing its valuation to $1.2 billion as it expands AI-driven marketing solutions. The investment supports AI Decisioning, a tool that automates personalized customer engagement using reinforcement learning. By enhancing automation and data integration, Hightouch aims to help brands optimize outreach and improve marketing efficiency.
Hightouch Lands $80M—Here’s What It Means for AI in Marketing
Hightouch has raised $80 million in its Series C funding round, bringing its valuation to $1.2 billion. This investment, led by Sapphire Ventures with participation from Bain Capital Ventures, ICONIQ Growth, and others, marks a major step in the company’s expansion. The new capital will support the growth of AI Decisioning, an advanced marketing tool designed to automate and optimize customer engagement. As marketing teams struggle with personalization and data activation, Hightouch is advancing its AI-driven solutions to help brands navigate these challenges.
Why Traditional Marketing Falls Short in Today’s Digital World
Marketers have long relied on predefined customer journeys, static segmentation, and scheduled outreach. These traditional approaches often fail to deliver relevant, real-time interactions. Consumers expect personalized experiences, but most brands still depend on rule-based systems that lack flexibility.
With growing volumes of data, companies face difficulties in identifying the right message for the right person at the right time. Email fatigue, low engagement rates, and disconnected customer interactions continue to limit marketing effectiveness. The demand for automated decision-making is increasing, pushing businesses to explore AI-powered solutions that go beyond manual campaign management.
AI Decisioning: The Game-Changer for Smarter Customer Engagement
AI Decisioning platform shifts marketing strategies from rigid workflows to adaptive intelligence. Instead of relying on pre-scheduled campaigns, AI agents dynamically determine the best outreach strategy for each individual based on real-time data.
This approach integrates reinforcement learning to analyze past customer interactions and predict future behaviors. By continuously optimizing messaging, timing, and channels, brands can maximize lifetime value and engagement.
Companies like PetSmart and WHOOP are already using this technology to improve their marketing performance. PetSmart personalizes its loyalty program outreach for over 70 million members, while WHOOP has seen measurable improvements in cross-sell campaigns within six weeks of implementation.
Recommended: MacroCycle Technologies Secures $6.5M As It Scales Plastic Upcycling With 80% Less Energy
How Hightouch Plans to Use Its $80M Investment
With fresh funding, Hightouch is expanding its AI-driven capabilities to refine marketing automation. Investments will focus on:
- Enhancing AI Decisioning – Improving model accuracy, expanding insights, and refining personalization techniques.
- Scaling Customer Adoption – Making AI-driven marketing accessible to more brands across industries.
- Advancing Self-Service AI Tools – Empowering marketers to create and manage AI agents without technical expertise.
- Expanding Integrations – Strengthening compatibility with major data platforms like Snowflake, Google BigQuery, and Salesforce.
The company’s strategy builds on its existing Composable CDP, leveraging years of development in customer data infrastructure. By integrating AI agents with a proven data platform, Hightouch aims to streamline marketing automation while maintaining flexibility for businesses.
What This Means for Brands Adopting AI-Powered Marketing
Companies implementing AI-driven marketing tools stand to benefit from improved efficiency, higher engagement, and more effective targeting. AI Decisioning enables brands to:
- Move beyond static customer journeys and optimize messaging in real time.
- Automate experiments to identify the most effective outreach strategies.
- Reduce manual workload while improving campaign performance.
Instead of relying on predefined rules, marketers can assign business goals and let AI agents handle execution. This shift reduces inefficiencies and ensures that customers receive relevant, timely interactions across email, push notifications, in-app messaging, and advertising.
Hightouch’s Next Steps in the AI-Powered Marketing Landscape
AI-driven marketing continues to evolve, and Hightouch is positioning itself at the forefront of this transformation. With ongoing enhancements to AI Decisioning, the company is focusing on deeper insights, model improvements, and greater flexibility for marketers.
Marketing teams will still require control over major brand campaigns, but AI will increasingly handle evergreen initiatives like cross-sells, frequency management, and customer retention. The combination of AI-driven automation and a robust data platform signals a shift in how brands interact with customers, making personalization more scalable and effective.
Please email us your feedback and news tips at hello(at)dailycompanynews.com
