The Boris Yelstin Presidential Center doesn’t come up very often in this newsletter, so I’m pleased to report that Mindbox, a Moscow-based integrated marketing systemn and CDP vendor that counts the Yelstin Center among its clients, has raised a $13 million investment to fuel its growth and international expansion.  Boris would be proud.

If you’re really obsessed with tech debates, enjoy this RapidAPI report that finds use of APIs is on the rise.    Otherwise, you’re probably more interested that Airship found consumers are more open to receiving brand communications if they’re given control over what they’re sent, how often, and over which channels.  You won’t be surprised that the most common reason people opt to receive brand messages is to save money, or that location- and behavior-based offers are the least important.

Martech keeps taking larger bites out of marketing budgets: 17.3% last year, 19.9% this year, 23.5% next year, and 30.9% five years from now, according to the latest CMO Survey. This despite barely more than half (56.4%) of current tools being used and nearly half (48.8%) of the survey respondents reporting worse-than-expected results. Oddly enough, marketers rate selecting marketing technologies as the thing they do best.