Singapore-based B2B SaaS startup Insider has unlocked unicorn status after raising a $121 million Series D round led by Qatar Investment Authority at a $1.22 billion valuation.
Other investors who participated in the round include Sequoia Capital, Riverwood Capital, 212, Wamda Capital, Esas Private Equity, and Endeavor Catalyst.
Insider help marketers deepen brand love with individualized customer experiences. They simplify marketers’ lives by helping them connect their data, understand how their users think, and predict what they’ll do next with the help of AI. Freeing marketers from IT allows them to create captivating experiences that build brand love—at scale.
Founded in 2012 by Cilingir (CEO), Serhat Soyuerel (Chief Revenue Officer), Arda Koterin (Chief Customer Officer), Sinan Toktay (CTO), Okan Yedibela (VP of Engineering), and Muharrem Derinkök (Chief Product Officer), the Insider team has more than 700 team members from 41 different nationalities across 28 countries worldwide. Insider is a female-led organization with 60% of top executives in the company, including the CEO, CMO, CFO, and CHRO.
This funding will be used to fuel rapid global expansion, enhance the company’s core technology and scale global sales and marketing investments.
Insider has aggressive global hiring plans and anticipates creating more than 2,000 jobs over the next four years, emphasizing hiring female engineers fill hundreds of research and development (R&D) and product development positions.
MEA has been a critical market for Insider since its establishment. The company first expanded into two regions in Europe, including Turkey and Russia, before MEA, LATAM, and the US. The SaaS company serves some of the biggest brands in MEA, including Samsung, Estée Lauder, Avon, Toyota, AirArabia, Nissan, Liv by ENBD, IKEA, and Flyadeal “MEA region is one of the early markets to adopt Insider, and we are very grateful to each of our partners for their trust in us.
“The Series D funding is perfect timing as the region is gearing up to outpace global economic growth in 2022 by making huge strides in developing its digital economy,” declared Leo Thomas, Regional Director MEA for Insider. “We are so thrilled with the Series D investment round, and we look forward to a very rapid expansion by scaling up sales and marketing efforts not only in MEA but also in India and Pakistan.”
“We’ve been blitzscaling remarkably in the past three years and achieved 3X growth. In the same period, our global team grew by 300%, and our customer base continues to increase,” said founder and CEO Hande Cilingir.
