Longtail UX, an Australian founded tech company with 70+ clients across the Americas, EMEA and JAPAC, has today announced a $2.25m supplementary equity raise in partnership with Woolworths Group’s venture capital arm, W23 and Steven Lew-owned group, Global Retail Brands (GRB).
The investment builds on the $3m funding round led by Investec through its Investec Emerging Companies Fund I (IEC Fund I) back in March of this year. The Investec raise originally allowed for a further $1m of investment from up to 2 additional strategic investors within a 3-4 month period. However interest from both W23 and GRB was sufficiently strong that the Longtail UX board took the decision to increase the allocated cap to accommodate W23 and GRB’s investment ambitions.
With COVID-19 forcing businesses to move online with more urgency than ever, tech solutions like Longtail UX have come into greater demand. As budgets are being scrutinised across the board, business leaders are turning to new options to acquire online customers at a predictable ROI, a particular feature of Longtail UX that appealed to companies such as Kogan, Adore Beauty, GraysOnline and Dan Murphy’s, that have used Longtail UX’s patented technology.
Longtail UX co-founder and co-CEO Will Santow commented: ” We’re delighted to now have the incredible support of W23, Woolworths Group’s venture arm, as a new partner and shareholder.
“The investment is double what we’d initially allocated. It comes at a time where COVID-19 has created such uncertainty and the belief they showed in our unique technology is an incredible endorsement that we’ve created something truly special and they feel they can help drive us towards the next stage of our journey.”
The partnerships have already seen Stevie Lew owned group, Global Retail Brands, implement Longtail UX’s technologies, with further brands to benefit over time. The W23 and Longtail UX partnership will explore how to expand the use of Longtail UX’ technologies across Woolworths Group brands.
W23 managing director Ingrid Maes said: “Our investment in Longtail UX continues our focus on strategic partnerships with game-changing startups.
“At W23 we want to support innovation and foster entrepreneurial talent. The team at Longtail UX is high-calibre, and we know there is a lot to learn from innovators like them who are disrupting the market.
“Our partnership model will give the team at Longtail UX the freedom to continue doing what they do best, while offering them access to the assets we can bring to the table through the Woolworths Group to help them realise their plans faster.
“In return, our partnership should help the brands within Woolworths Group differentiate their offer and accelerate their ability to meet the changing needs of customers.”
The investment will further support Longtail UX’s international expansion and delivery of its full self-service platform, as well as enhancing the launch of Longtail UX’s new product – LUX Shopping. LUX Shopping measurably increases the ROI of e-commerce advertising by improving the shopper journey on clients’ websites.
Longtail UX co-founder and co-CEO Andreas Dzumla added: “We’ve built a game-changing product that is delivering huge results for our clients across multiple industries. This latest investment enables us to help more businesses than ever before expand their website capabilities, personalise customer experiences across major digital marketing channels and connect more new customers with their brand at a predictable ROI.”
