CMS Firm Raydiant Closes $30M In New Funding For Key Hires And More M&A

February 17, 2022 by Dave Haynes

San Francisco-based CMS software shop Raydiant is making investment moves that set it apart from the many, many, many small digital signage platform developers competing in a hyper-crowded space – taking on $30 million in new funding that will be used for new hires and more acquisitions.

The company has announced “a $30 million Series B funding round led by 8VC and Atomic Ventures, with participation from Lerer Hippeau, Gaingels, Mark Wahlberg, Haveli, Illuminate Ventures, and XRC. The funds will be used to continue innovating the company’s product offerings through strategic acquisitions, as well as hire key team members to execute on Raydiant’s go-to market strategy as the company moves up-market.”

“Raydiant was born as a digital signage company with a mission to modernize the brick-and-mortar tool stack so that brands can thrive in our new experience-driven world. We’ve since evolved into a full-service platform powered by AI, and the leader in the in-location experience management space,” says CEO Bobby Marhamat. “This increase in funding will help us continue to drive the future of in-location experiences for both in-store customers and back of house employees on a global scale. The pandemic has changed the way we shop and engage with brands, and brick-and-mortar organizations need to evolve if they’re going to keep their doors open. But they can’t do it alone. We’re thrilled to receive support from partners who value our mission to support brick-and-mortar in a way that no one else can. We’re excited for this next growth chapter and the opportunity to reimagine the retail experience as we know it.”

The company did a $13 million Series A round a year ago, and in the wake of that acquired a pair of companies: Hoopla (workplace communications); and Sightcorp (computer vision).

The company says it is closing in on 4,500 customers – from local SMBs to enterprise brick-and-mortar organizations. Raydiant also says it saw 357% year over year growth and now has more than 100 employees, with plans to triple that by the end of this year.

There are some steady-state smaller firms staying away from outside funding and M&A activity and just doing their thing, but there are also companies growing through investment rounds and a combination of verticalization and buying footprint. STRATACACHE is the big dog in that sort of thing, but companies such as Spectrio (disclosure, it acquired this site last year), Uniguest, Velocity and, in Europe, Zeta Display.

I did a podcast a couple of years back with Marhamat: