Yet another tech unicorn has been crowned this year in Chicago.
Today, marketing tech company ActiveCampaign announced it raised $240 million in Series C funding at a valuation north of $3 billion. The round was led by New York City investment firm Tiger Global, and included backing from Dragoneer, Susquehanna Growth Equity and Silversmith Capital Partners.
The new funding follows a $100 million round ActiveCampaign raised in 2020, and the firm has now raised $360 million to date.
Founded in 2003, ActiveCampaign is no stranger to Chicago's tech scene. But its hyper growth is relatively new. The company had just 15 people at the start of 2016, and has now grown to over 850 employees, adding over 300 new workers in 2020. It plans to reach 1,000 employees by the end of 2021.
"The fact that we’ve grown so much during a turbulent time proves that our customer experience solution is no longer a nice-to-have, it’s critical to any business’ survival," said founder and CEO Jason VandeBoom in a statement to Chicago Inno. "With this funding, we’re thrilled that we’re able to accelerate the rate at which we’re helping small businesses in our local Chicago community and beyond."
ActiveCampaign started out as a customer experience business and relaunched as a SaaS platform in 2016 and raised $20 million in its first round of outside funding. Today, the company, which helps brands send and design email newsletters and automate marketing channels, has 145,000 customers in 170 countries. Its clients include the Museum of Science and Industry, whole30 and Koia.
ActiveCampaign says it's generating $165 million in annual recurring revenue, up from $100 million in ARR from less than a year ago.
ActiveCampaign's fundraise comes amid an almost unheard of string of mega deals in Chicago tech. The city's venture funding is off to a record pace this year, with local tech companies raising $2 billion in VC last quarter. ActiveCampaign now becomes the third Chicago tech company this year to earn "unicorn" status as a private tech company valued at $1 billion or more. In March, Chicago legal tech company Relativity took an investment from Silver Lake that valued the firm at $3.6 billion. And Cameo, a celebrity shoutout app, raised $100 million last month at $1 billion valuation.
Those companies join existing Chicago unicorns like Tempus, SMS Assist, Avant, Enfusion and Uptake.
2021 has also seen several major M&A deals for Chicago tech companies, including Ensono's $1.7 billion acquisition to KKR, Tock's $400 million deal with Squarespace, and tastytrade's $1 billion exit to IG Group.
