Indian customer engagement software company MoEngage has acquired San Francisco-based startup Aampe in an all-cash deal, betting that AI agents that make decisions for individual customers are the future of marketing.
MoEngage did not disclose financial terms of the deal, but a person familiar with the matter told TechCrunch that the all-cash deal is worth tens of millions of dollars.
Founded in 2020, Aampe develops software that assigns each customer a dedicated AI agent, allowing brands to personalize messaging based on individual behavior rather than traditional audience segments or campaign rules. Raviteja Dodda, co-founder and chief executive officer of MoEngage, said in an interview that the startup has more than 30 customers across the US, Europe and Asia Pacific, and annual recurring revenue has increased 150% over the past year.
Dodda told TechCrunch that the acquisition will help the company win over customers using competing marketing platforms such as Salesforce and Adobe.
“A large portion of our growth is driven by enterprise customer migration from Salesforce Marketing Cloud and Adobe Experience Cloud,” said Dodda.
Dodda said MoEngage recently signed three to four multi-million dollar annual contracts with customers who switched from Salesforce. He expects the Aampe acquisition will help him acquire more such customers.
The acquisition comes as software companies race to embed AI more deeply into enterprise applications, moving beyond tools that generate content or help employees make decisions autonomously. In marketing, this involves deciding which customers to target, what messages to send, and when to send them.
Aampe’s technology is used by brands like Swiggy, Grab and Taxfix, some of which also use MoEngage’s customer engagement platform.
The acquisition comes more than six months after MoEngage raised $280 million in a combination of primary and secondary deals. Approximately 20 Aampe employees will join MoEngage, bringing the company’s workforce to approximately 820.
Founded in 2020, Aampe has raised approximately $28 million in three funding rounds. The startup includes Peak XV Partners, Z47, and Theory Ventures as investors.
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