Alyce Inc. (“Alyce”), the AI-powered platform that’s redefining direct mail and swag, announced that it has raised $11.5 million in Series A funding to accelerate its growth and continue to help B2B companies get into more of their target accounts with a hyper-personalized approach to gifting. Manifest led the round with additional participation from General Catalyst, Boston Seed Capital, Golden Ventures, Morningside and Victress Capital.

Alyce is the only platform that gives sales, marketing, and customer relations teams the ability to send thoughtful gifts to individual recipients at scale rather than sending everyone the same generic item. Alyce’s patent-pending, AI-powered technology serves up personalized gift options which recipients can either accept, exchange, or donate the value of to the charity of their choice. This give-first approach yields up to twice the target account penetration at a fraction of the cost, according to feedback from Alyce customers.

Marketing Technology News: Oracle Collaborates with Top Oracle PartnerNetwork Platinum Level Members to Rethink Customer Data Platform Market

“If target accounts matter, then our truly personal approach to direct mail and swag at scale moves the pipeline needle,” said Greg Segall, founder and CEO of Alyce. “Marketers no longer have to settle for a persona-based, spray-and-pray approach. Now their direct mail and swag channels can operate at the person-to-person level. It saves time and wasted marketing dollars. People love receiving Alyce gifts and that surprise and delight experience is what really drives us!”

The process of researching a recipient’s interests, and then purchasing and sending a hand-selected gift takes hours and is therefore nearly impossible to scale. Alyce’s AI technology searches all publicly available information to offer gift options matched directly to those interests, acting as a personal assistant for sales reps. These options include everything from unique gifts and fun experiences, to subscription services, gift cards and direct donations. For example:

• Someone passionate about ending homelessness can donate to a local shelter
• Game of Thrones fanatics will love a 3D map of Westeros and Essos
• Parents with children can be sent a four-person pass to a trampoline park

Marketing Technology News: Databricks Accelerates APJ Expansion Following $250 Million Funding Round

“Alyce helps organizations augment their sales outreach and get the attention of prospective customers quickly,” said Will Pringle, VP of worldwide demand generation at Fuze. “Alyce can be fully integrated into Salesforce.com, which makes tracking its effectiveness easy. It’s also an excellent complement to our marketing strategy as it allows our sales and marketing teams to progress prospects through the funnel and have meaningful interactions.”

As a socially and environmentally-conscious organization, Alyce is the only software that enables companies to do good by giving gifts. Charitable donations make up more than 10 percent of Alyce’s redeemed gifts and provide an effective way to gift within regulated industries.

Alyce will use this Series A funding to continue to build out its sales, marketing, and customer success efforts and to expand its AI capabilities, with 50 new hires expected in its Boston headquarters and an additional 50 international hires expected within the next twelve months.

Paul Falzone, Managing Partner at Manifest, will be joining Alyce’s board of directors.

Marketing Technology News: Blis Expands Into the Netherlands With First Hire