For no obvious reason, it’s all financial news from Europe today, Dear Reader. We’ll start with Helsinki-based Nosto, which calls itself the “world’s leading Commerce Experience Platform”, although they don’t say by what measure. They just announced a $16 million funding round, which brings total funding to $48.8 million.
Synthetic data is generated using computer algorithms and takes a real data set, then employs AI to learn patterns from that data and finally produces similar data in volume. Gartner projects this area will account for 60% of information for analytics projects by 2024 and it will address the growing need for large volumes of data in the absence of consent for data set harvesting.
Next we have Factor Eleven, based in presumably-lovely Giessen, Germany. Their bold claim is to offer ad buyers a “true alternative to Google and Facebook on the Open Internet”. I found no mention on their website of being purchased by the Amira Investment Holding compan, but advisor GP Bullhound broke the news while tooting its own horn.
Twilio is adding ‘contextual awareness’ to its Segment CDP, which in plainer English means data stored in Segment will be available when creating event-triggered, real-time messages. This and a redesigned journey architecture are part of Twilio’s “next generation” customer engagement platform, which also includes natural voice AI agents, voice and text analytics, and RCS and WhatsApp messaging. Twilio separately announced a multi-year partnership with Microsoft to speed the adoption of conversational AI for customer engagement.