John Beckett. Image: ChannelSight
In 2000, a teenager called John Beckett helped kick-start Ryanair’s journey to be the ‘Amazon of air travel’. In 2019, he is bringing hundreds of big brands on the digital journey with ChannelSight.
ChannelSight, the e-commerce platform co-founded and led by Irish tech entrepreneur John Beckett, has raised $10m in a Series B funding round led by Connected Capital, an Amsterdam-based B2B software-as-a-service investor.
Founded in 2013, ChannelSight’s platform enables brands such as Philips, Bosch, Pepsi and Mondelēz to drive sales from their digital content and understand what content and ads work most effectively across all digital channels.
‘ChannelSight is modernising how brands drive profitable user engagement with their content across digital channels and markets’
– JOHN BECKETT
Existing investors include Nauta Capital, ACT Venture Capital and Enterprise Ireland, all of which participated in this latest fundraising round. This round will be used to accelerate ChannelSight’s product roadmap delivery and global expansion.
Beckett famously built the first Ryanair website with a booking engine when he was 17 along with a school pal, Tom Lenihan, for the princely sum of IR£20,000. That website went on to become the cornerstone of what is today a digital travel empire.
However, Beckett’s more recent venture, ChannelSight, could reap him many more rewards.
The rise of ‘where to buy’ technology
Hundreds of global brands in 65 countries use ChannelSight’s technology to help users frictionlessly move from the brand’s digital content to retailers, where they can purchase the product they are interested in. An advanced insights platform gives brands access to unique business intelligence that enables future budget allocation to be optimised, and increases the return on investment that brands gain from their content and campaigns.
“ChannelSight is modernising how brands drive profitable user engagement with their content across digital channels and markets,” Beckett explained.
“This new round of investment will enable us to accelerate the delivery of innovative new product lines and increase our global reach. We’re excited about the impact this will have for our clients and are proud to partner with Connected Capital and our existing investors to build further momentum and continue our strong annual growth.”
ChannelSight currently employs 70 people and is now hiring for an additional 30 roles across product, marketing, sales and engineering in its Dublin, Brașov and Thessaloniki offices.
“We believe that ChannelSight is a truly exciting company with global ambitions and market-defining potential,” said John Flynn, managing partner at ACT Venture Capital. “Having shown significant growth, we have confidence the team is in place to lead the expansion. ACT is delighted to support the acceleration of this expansion and will continue to support ChannelSight’s global ambitions.”
