CM Group, a portfolio of martech companies focused on multichannel digital marketing, announced its merger with Cheetah Digital under the CM Group name. The merger expands and enhances both CM Group’s and Cheetah Digital’s ability to deliver innovative email, omnichannel, personalization, and loyalty solutions. The combined company will own a broad array of technologies referenced in the 2021 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Multichannel Marketing Hubs, which orchestrate marketer communications with client segments across multiple channels.
Following the merger, the company plans significant investments across the portfolio to bring new products to its base of 70,000+ active customers. As marketers increasingly seek multi- and omnichannel technology solutions to meet modern customer expectations, CM Group will expand its primary focus from email marketing to overall customer engagement and give marketers the ability to acquire, engage, and retain customers through the channels that matter most. Cheetah Digital’s Customer Engagement Suite solutions including Experiences, Personalization, Loyalty, and the Engagement Data Platform will help further accelerate the pace of innovation across CM Group’s existing products, enabling customer organizations of all sizes to meet the needs of modern consumers.
What differentiates CM Group is that each of its nine products focuses on specific verticals or market segments. The merger with Cheetah Digital will expand CM Group’s reach into the large enterprise segment. Key Cheetah Digital customers include Hilton, Neiman Marcus, Walgreens and Williams-Sonoma.
CM Group’s model enables product development and services to be tuned to the specific needs of each of its key customer verticals and segments, making CM Group’s products core to the marketing tech stack. By leveraging Cheetah Digital’s innovative solutions, CM Group’s brands will be able to deliver new vertical and use-case specific products to markets ranging from small and medium businesses to enterprises across key verticals including retail, ecommerce, media, publishing, financial services, travel and hospitality, entertainment, agencies, and more.
“Our merger with Cheetah Digital means CM Group will be well positioned to meet the needs of customers of all sizes and shapes, and we will continue to be their marketing technology partner as they grow by delivering the right technology at the right time, tailored to their industry and built for the scale at which they operate. By keeping each CM Group product distinct and focused on specific verticals or market segments, we deliver superior solutions, expertise, and outcomes for customers when compared to the large volume of generalist solutions in the market today.”
Wellford Dillard, CEO at CM Group
“CM Group’s ‘home for every marketer’ model is a completely unique approach in our industry and in broader martech. This merger offers us the opportunity to bring immense innovation to the customers within the CM Group portfolio through an expanded suite of product offerings. The momentum of our ‘innovation engine’ at Cheetah will develop these solutions beyond email to bring net-new value for our customers,” said Peter McCormick, Executive Chairman at Cheetah Digital.
CM Group will continue to look for opportunities to accelerate innovation, augment existing product capabilities and add complementary technologies through future business combinations, bringing significant benefits to marketers and further accelerating CM Group’s organic growth.
“As marketers’ needs have evolved and organizations turn toward their own data as the foundation of their marketing strategy, CM Group is perfectly positioned to grow dramatically in the future. Their unique approach – having a suite of highly specialized data-driven offerings – creates an opportunity to become the leading provider of modern marketing technology to nearly every organization in the world,” said Adam Berger, Managing Director at Insight Partners.
“With these two organizations joining forces, CM Group is set to become a global leader in customer acquisition, engagement, retention, and growth,” said Sandy Gill, Managing Director at Vector Capital. “Marketers are looking for the next generation of technology to be specialized to their needs and CM Group is executing on a strategy that truly meets the needs of their customers while opening up new opportunities to accelerate growth within a fragmented martech landscape.”
The existing owners of CM Group, including Insight Partners, will remain majority owners of the combined company. Vector Capital, which was previously a majority owner of Cheetah Digital, will become a substantial minority owner of the combined company.
About Cheetah Digital
Cheetah Digital is a cross-channel customer engagement solution provider for the modern marketer. The Cheetah Digital Customer Engagement Suite enables marketers to create personalized experiences, cross-channel messaging, and loyalty strategies, underpinned by an engagement data platform that can scale to meet the changing demands of today's consumer. Many of the world’s best brands, including Hilton, Neiman Marcus, Walgreens, and Williams-Sonoma trust Cheetah Digital to help them drive revenue, build lasting customer relationships, and deliver a unique value exchange throughout the customer lifecycle.
About CM Group
CM Group is a family of global marketing technology brands including Campaign Monitor, Emma, Vuture, Delivra, Liveclicker, Sailthru, and Selligent. By joining together these leading brands, CM Group offers a variety of world-class solutions that can be used by marketers at any level. Headquartered in Nashville, TN, CM Group has United States offices in Indianapolis, Los Angeles, New York City, Pittsburgh and San Francisco, and global offices in Australia, Belgium, United Kingdom, New Zealand, France, and Uruguay.
About Insight Partners
Insight Partners is a leading global venture capital and private equity firm investing in high-growth technology and software ScaleUp companies that are driving transformative change in their industries. Founded in 1995, Insight Partners has invested in more than 400 companies worldwide and has raised through a series of funds more than $30 billion in capital commitments. Insight’s mission is to find, fund, and work successfully with visionary executives, providing them with practical, hands-on software expertise to foster long-term success. Across its people and its portfolio, Insight encourages a culture around a belief that ScaleUp companies and growth create opportunity for all.
About Vector Capital
Vector Capital is a San Francisco-based leading global private equity firm focused on transformative investments in technology and technology-enabled businesses. Founded in 1997, Vector oversees approximately $4 billion of capital across its private equity and credit strategies from a variety of investors including university endowments, foundations, and financial institutions. Vector exclusively focuses on investments within the technology sector and has built a successful track record of executing buyouts, carve-outs, recapitalizations, minority, and credit investments. With our disciplined approach to valuation and deep-rooted operational experience, Vector has generated competitive returns and established a successful track record spanning nearly 25 years.