The Oversubscribed Round, Led by a16z and Runa Capital, Comes After a Pivotal Year for AnyRoad As Experiences Shift to Hybrid Online and Offline Models

AnyRoad, the leader in Experience Relationship Management (ERM), today announced that it closed $10 million in Series A-1 financing, led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and Runa Capital. The oversubscribed round includes participation from previous investors Rally Ventures, Precursor Ventures, and Day One Ventures and introduces Runa Capital as a new investor.

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Most brands were forced to shift to digital experiences during the pandemic. As the reopening of the economy accelerates, the customer experience industry faces an inflection point where brands need one platform to fuel hybrid, virtual and in-person engagements at scale. AnyRoad empowers brands to use real-time data to deliver transformative experiences, from live streams and virtual to in-store activations and much more. The platform uncovers insights to understand how these engagements drive changes in brand perception, purchase behavior, and consumption habits, and ultimately drive loyalty and revenue.

“The world is moving from a things economy to an experience economy. This trend has become even more obvious post-pandemic as most of our customers are already seeing a renaissance in IRL branded experiences, while at the same time, virtual experiences are now permanent fixtures in any CX strategy,” said Jonathan Yaffe, CEO and co-founder of AnyRoad. “The future is hybrid. We are now doubling down on building out a platform that leverages brands’ data to scale experiences that change behavior, feelings, and perception, no matter whether their customers are in stores or on sofas.”

This funding comes after a monumental year for AnyRoad. With in-person events coming to a halt in early 2020, the company quickly introduced AnyRoad AtHome, a product to enable marketers to plan, execute and measure the impact of virtual and hybrid experiences at scale. Millions of consumers have since attended online experiences powered by AnyRoad, while major brands, including DICK’S Sporting Goods, Nestlé, and Fisker signed on as new customers. The company managed to retain and grow their customer partnerships despite the pandemic’s impact on the industry. “The experience economy didn’t disappear as some had feared – it just moved to virtual,” said Yaffe.

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Commenting on the adoption of AnyRoad’s online experience offering to reimagine in-store classes, Jen Harness, Director of Marketing Content and Experience at Michaels said: “It’s surreal how quickly we were able to move during shelter-in-place—both the Michaels and AnyRoad teams. Lockdown kicked in and stores were closing so AnyRoad suggested we try online classes. From then on it was like our teams were on hyperdrive and it was amazing.”

AnyRoad will use the new financing to invest heavily in research and development and advance its data, insights, and machine learning products to support the hybrid experience model. The company plans to double its headcount in engineering and sales and, with today’s news, announces the hiring of two new executives: Ryan Whitney joins the company as Chief Sales Officer (CSO) and Aamir Farooq joins as VP of Engineering. Whitney brings extensive experience in enterprise sales, having most recently held the role of SVP of Americas at Gainsight. Farooq joins from Optimizely, where he was responsible for building and scaling its digital experience optimization product offerings.

Commenting on the announcement, David Ulevitch of Andreesen Horowitz said: “AnyRoad is in a unique position at the forefront of the experiential resurgence to support brands in reopening and scaling their experience programs. While other businesses in the space have struggled, 2020 was a breakthrough year for the company due to a combination of being laser focused on customer needs and being agile in response to challenging market conditions. AnyRoad has emerged from the pandemic stronger than ever, and we are excited to deepen our partnership with AnyRoad as they build a category-defining enterprise software company.”

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