Impact, the global leader in partnership automation, today announced a US$75 million (A$104 million) investment led by Providence Strategic Growth (PSG).
The new funding will accelerate platform development, further go-to-market and regional expansion, and fuel both organic and inorganic growth.
Existing investor Silversmith Capital Partners also participated in this investment.
Analysts, technology and enterprise leaders recognise that partnerships are a significant source of incremental business growth and new revenue streams.
While sales and marketing have long been viewed as the primary sources of growth, they are no longer enough to sustain it.
Partnerships have emerged as the next and third major growth driver for business.
Forrester principal analyst global channels Jay McBain said: “We have seen brands double-down on direct sales and marketing investments such as CRM and marketing automation over the past 20 years.
“With over 75 per cent of world trade flowing indirectly, Forrester believes the third stage of enterprise growth will revolve around paving the last mile to the customer through partners and alliances”.
Just as automation has transformed sales and marketing organisations and their processes, partnership automation is doing the same.
Automating partnership discovery, recruitment, onboarding, engagement and optimisation is possible through Impact’s Partnership Cloud.
Impact’s most mature clients leverage the Partnership Cloud to transform their organisations and partnership initiatives to expand across all types of partnerships, from traditional affiliates to influencers to strategic B2B partnerships and more to become the fastest-growing revenue channel for their organisation.
Ticketmaster SVP & GM of distributed commerce Dan Armstrong said: “Impact’s platform allows us to create and scale direct partnerships to drive new revenue more efficiently than in the past.
“We’ve enabled discovery and purchase of the largest ticket inventory in the world through unique partnerships with social media platforms, music streaming services and major publishers on a global scale.
“Impact helps us understand the value we create through these partners, allowing us to focus more of our time on innovation”
Impact APAC MD Adam Furness said: “There’s been an explosion of innovation around new types of partnerships being forged to grow enterprise revenue.
“Beyond Ticketmaster building native software integration partnerships with social media platforms, Impact enables a marketplace of hospitality services to establish partnerships with airlines.
“A fashion-forward sportswear brand to partner with YouTube influencers. A major direct-to-consumer mattress brand to establish partnerships with chiropractors.
“And another fast-growing direct-to-consumer business, to establish partnerships with animal shelters, veterinary clinics, dog walkers and pet hotels for their pet care subscription boxes.
“The types of emerging partnerships supported by Impact’s Partnership Cloud are virtually limitless”.
He continued: “What was once seen as an offshoot or hybrid of sales and marketing, partnerships are now fuelling 50 per cent or more revenue growth for some companies, and representing as much as 25 per cent of total revenue.
“Enterprises across the region are demanding automation to help them scale in this new category of revenue, similar to the automation they’ve used in other categories such as sales and marketing.
“With support from PSG, a premier global investor, we will be able to further evolve our integrated platform to empower partnership leaders across Asia Pacific to effectively and efficiently grow their business in this new era of the partnership economy.
“We’re delighted to have PSG on board”.
PSG MD Marco Ferrari said: “Impact has provided the industry and its customers with a powerful, integrated platform that we believe has now become the premier partnership automation software available.
“We’re excited to invest in and partner with Impact as they grow and develop new technologies to automate, scale and optimise partnership programs for enterprises worldwide”.
Silversmith Capital Partners managing partner Jim Quagliaroli said: “This announcement follows a landmark year for Impact, in which they completed the acquisition of Mediarails, the leading CRM for influencer discovery, recruitment and optimisation; continued their global expansion by opening local offices in Singapore and the Nordics; and expanded their leadership team.
“We’re excited to add to our existing investment and to have PSG join us in this next stage of Impact’s growth”.
Furness added: “Impact continues to expand rapidly across Asia Pacific as the value of partnership automation is realised.
“We have ambitious plans to grow the business even further in the coming 12 months, which will include establishing offices in China and Japan, doubling the Asia Pacific team and on-boarding 50+ new enterprises”.
