Turkish female-founded startup Insider turns unicorn after raising €109.89M; plans to invest €45M in Benelux

Turkey-based Insider, a B2B software-as-a-service startup, announced on Tuesday that it has raised $121M (nearly €109.89M) in its Series D round of funding. With this funding, the company has become one of the few female-led SaaS unicorns in the world as its valuation reached $1.2B (nearly €1.08B).

The company claims to have achieved rapid growth and is one of the top 9 B2B SaaS unicorns worldwide, according to Crunchbase, and also the fifth largest B2B SaaS unicorn in the US, fourth in Europe, second in Asia, and first in Latin America.

Insider’s co-founder and CEO Hande Cilingir says, “We have experienced exceptional development over the past three years, achieving 3x growth. During the same period, our global team grew by 300 per cent and our customer base continues to grow. After our successful expansion in Asia, Europe and LATAM, we will continue this momentum in the US market. Currently, we are very focused to bring Insider to other markets and become the number one choice for every marketer on the planet.”

The company empowers marketers to build deeper connections and bring brands and people closer through experiences.

Funds to expand in Benelux

Over the past three years, Insider has grown exponentially in the Benelux, partnering with some of the fastest-growing e-commerce companies in the Netherlands and Belgium. It is planning to invest €45M in the Benelux over the next three years. 

The company claims that the proceeds from the current round will be used to accelerate expansion, improve the company’s core technology, and scale local sales and marketing investments. The company also expects to create more than 50 jobs over the next three years. Its focus is to recruit female engineers to fill positions within R&D and product development.

Bas Drogtrop, Country Manager Benelux at Insider, says, “In 2019 we opened our Benelux operation. Today, Insider Benelux’s partner portfolio includes leading brands such as Hunkemöller, ICI PARIS XL, OTTO, iBOOD and Rivièra Maison. With this new capital injection, we can scale the growth of our customer base in the Benelux, expand our regional teams in the Netherlands and Belgium and make our platform accessible to a wider audience.”

Currently, the company helps more than 1,000 brands such as AS Watson Group, Singapore Airlines, Samsung, IKEA, L’Oréal, MAC, Hunkemöller, OTTO, Toyota and Estée Lauder accelerate digital growth through premium cross-channel customer experiences.

Helping marketers deepen brand love with individualised customer experiences

Insider helps marketers to connect customer data with its AI-based marketing engine across various channels, which predicts future behaviour and creates individualised predictions for customers based on their historical data. Marketers use the Insider platform to deliver experiences across channels such as web, app, web push, email, SMS, and messaging apps such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and RCS.

The company claims that its integration takes minutes instead of months, reducing marketers’ reliance on internal IT teams. It empowers digital marketers to drive growth across channels and across the funnel, from acquisition to activation, revenue and retention (AARR), impacting ROI metrics such as conversion rate, CAC, LTV, and average order value.

The Singapore-based company was founded in 2012 by Hande Cilingir, Serhat Soyuerel, Arda Koterin, Sinan Toktay, Okan Yedibela, and Muharrem Derinkök. It is a women-led organisation where 60 per cent of the top executives in the company, including the CEO, CMO, CFO and CHRO, are women. The team has more than 700 members of 41 different nationalities in 28 countries worldwide.

Recently, the company raised $32M in its Series C funding round, led by Riverwood Capital and joined by Sequoia, Wamda, and Endeavor Catalyst.

Investors in this round

Insider’s Series D round was led by Qatar’s sovereign-wealth fund Qatar Investment Authority. Other investors include Luxembourg-based 212 Capital Partners, Bulgarian firm Endeavor Catalyst, Turkey’s Esas Private Equity, Menlo Park-based Riverwood Capital, Sequoia Capital and Dubai-based Wamda Capital.

The company told Forbes that “Insider has aggressive global hiring plans and anticipates creating more than 2,000 jobs over the next four years, with an emphasis on hiring female engineers to fill hundreds of R&D and product development positions.”