Technology

Back in 2017 Ometria, an &AI-powered& customer marketing platform, raised $6 million in Series A funding to add to the $11 million it had already raised. Its platform is all about allowing retailers to send individually personalized marketing messages across several brand touchpoints.

Today it announced that it has raised $21 million in a Series B funding led by London-based Octopus Ventures, with existing investors Sonae IM, Summit Action, Samos and Adjuvo, as well as 10 early angel investors, making further investments. Marieke Christmann from Octopus Ventures and Eduardo Piedade from Sonae IM both join Ometriaboard.

The funding will be used to accelerate Ometriaproduct development, expanding the platformspecialist retail marketing capabilities and further innovating its AI-based technology.

Off the back of the funding round, Ometria will also be opening its first U.S.-based operation in New York.

Ometriaschtick is that it addresses the fact that consumers will no longer tolerate the torrent of communication sent toward them that is basically irrelevant, especially as the retail environment becomes ever more competitive.

Its main competitors are spread across companies like email service providers (Emarsys, Sailthru, Selligent, Bronto, Dotmailer), behavioral marketing tools (CloudIQ, SaleCycle, Yieldify) and customer insight companies (More2, AgileOne). Its argument is that none of these companies were developed specifically for retail, or to create and use a unified predictive profile of each customer.

OmetriaCEO and founder Ivan Mazour says: &We&re all overloaded with information and communication, itrelentless and must be addressed. Retail marketing has contributed heavily to this, with most marketing experiences being ones we simply don&t enjoy. Ometria solves this ever-increasing problem for hundreds of retailers, and hundreds of millions of customers.&

It now has a client base of 200 retailers, including Hotel Chocolat, Fred Perry, MADE.com and Notonthehighstreet.com. Its senior leadership team now includes Pete Crosby (formerly of Triptease) as chief revenue officer, Rob Lord (formerly of CheetahMail) as VP of Professional Services and Jennifer Yorke (formerly of Bazaarvoice) as VP of Customer Success.

Christmann says, &We are very excited to have led OmetriaSeries B — a great example of how we invest in truly pioneering entrepreneurs that are creating innovative solutions through tech. Ometria will use this investment to revolutionize the retail marketing industry with its AI capabilities. We want to see entrepreneurs put their customers at the heart of the business and that is precisely what the team is doing.

GoPro successor to the Hero 7 is likely coming on October 1, as the action camera maker has posted to its official website a teaser with the date. The tagline &This is Action.& appears over a fast-cut mash-up of a variety of shots, including off-road racing, underwater diving and what looks like close-up footage of Frank Zapata (or someone else with a jetpack) flying around, along with the date.

The mostly shadowed image above is the closest we get to an official product shot, but we&ve seen leaks sourced from photo-focused rumor site Photo Rumors that suggest a redesign with added expandability options for advanced accessories, including front-facing display monitors and external flash. These leaks also include some potential specs, like a new GP2 chip to help with on-board image stabilization, better lenses and image quality and a new 12MP sensor, in addition to the new optional housing and accessories.

GoProHero 7 introduced HyperSmooth stabilization, which provides gimbal-like results without the actual gimbal thanks to advanced digital stabilization technology that GoPro developed in-house. But the company also saw the introduction of its strongest-yet competitor in the market this year with the DJI Osmo Action, a GoPro-like action camera from drone and gimbal-maker DJI, which is at least on par with the Hero 7 in terms of stabilization and quality, with added features aimed at the vlogging market, like a built-in front-facing display.

The slogan &This is Action.& could actually be interpreted as a dig against its newest rival, as Action is capitalized and the DJI camera is literally named the &Osmo Action.& Hopefully GoPro does indeed get a little spicy about its competitor, as ita market that could definitely stand to benefit from some genuine competition in the higher end of the category.