Customer journey orchestration engine Thunderhead has announced a ThunderBay, an AI-driven platform that creates individual-level optimized cross channel journeys. The system deals with the interdependencies among events, history, time, and path which overwhelm conventional methods. All good, even though the press release includes a gratuitous swipe at “CDPs and their ilk.” Ilk?

Sure enough, data quality is the top concern of location data buyers, according to this 451 Research study for Cuebiq. Privacy ranked fourth, just behind dealing with multiple data sources and walled gardens. The study found that 98% of marketers use location data to some degree, although just 27% consider it a key component of their strategy.

Netherlands-based retention management platform Retail Rocket just raised a $24 Million Series A, and immediately spent some of it to buy Sailplay, a New York-based marketing automation vendor that will grow its U.S. presence.  Retail Rocket builds unified customer profiles in a module it charmingly calls Data Warehouse, and has other modules for AI-driven personalization, segmentation, and campaign management.  The company has more than 1,000 global clients across Europe and South America.