Persado, a spin-off from marketing firm Upstream, raised the cash from investors including Citi Ventures and American Express Ventures.
Persado, the US-based developer of an automated online marketing platform, closed a $21m series B round today featuring financial services firm Citi and payment services provider American Express.
Citi Ventures and American Express Ventures, Citi and Amex’s respective corporate venturing units, joined venture capital firm StarVest Partners, which led the round, and Bain Capital Ventures.
Spun off from digital marketing firm Upstream in 2012, Persado’s technology replaces human copywriters with automation technology to map emotions and generate language for marketing communications like emails, landing pages, push notifications or social media.
Bain Capital Ventures, the VC arm of private equity firm Bain Capital, previously led a $15m round for Persado in 2013 that also included TL Capitol. Upstream reportedly seeded the company with $19m of its own cash.
The funding will be used to expand Persado’s sales and marketing team, and to further develop its persuasion automation platform.
Persado has more than 50 customers around the world. It is headquartered in New York City, and maintains offices in San Francisco, Athens, London, Rome and Rio de Janeiro.
