Startup Crobox receives €1,1 million to subconsciously make you buy more

Marketing startup Crobox has raised a hefty sum of €1,1 million in seed funding. The Amsterdam based startup does marketing the sneaky way, by tapping into the subconsciousness of would-be customers in webshops. Their investment is led by Dutch investor Keadyn, with participation from the French Ventech and a number of unknown angel investors. Crobox does marketing the sneaky way, by subconsciously persuading customers to buy something.

Persuasion as a service

The startup brands itself als ‘persuasion as a service’. Their software can be implemented into online shops, and offers a wide range of tools to drive conversion. Crobox doesn’t do marketing the traditional way, by deploying banners or pop-ups. Instead, it dives deep into the psychology of the shoppers using over 200 psychological triggers. Their automated software combines consumer psychology with machine learning to influence website visitors and persuade them to spend some cash.

Emotional triggers

“More than 95% of the daily decisions you make, are driven by the subconscious mind. People think they make a decision on a rational basis, but in fact it is driven by emotional triggers”, explains Rodger Buijvoets, CEO and founder of Crobox. “By making use of machine learning, the technology knows exactly which persuasion tactic does, and doesn’t, work for every individual.”

Tags and notifications

For the visitor this results in a wide range of personalized calls to action. This ranges from a number of tags to emphasize the scarcity or popularity of a product, or smart notifications using effective triggers. Crobox also provides extensive analytics for webshops, to help them get the most out of their visitors.

Big clients, bright future

Naturally, this draws the attention of companies looking to sell more. Among them are currently T-Mobile, Under Armour, Vodafone and Rakuten. According to Ohad Gild, managing partner of Kaedyn, Crobox can only get better: “Their uniquely blended technology results in an industry leading marketing message optimization, that will even perform better over time due to its machine learning capabilities.” In time, Crobox wants to expand to other countries. Their current funding should make it possible to take some big steps in that direction. Crobox started in 2015 as a startup named Sagent, but quickly changed its name to their current one. The startup employs 20 people.

Photo: Crobox founding team with Rodger Buijvoets second left