Italian martech startup Audiens gets $8 million from South Korea's NHN, will use investor's vast consumer data

Audiens, the Milan-based customer data platform and audience management tool, has landed an $8 million cash investment from South Korea’s NHN Corp. This marks NHN’s first investment in a European tech company, although Audiens was acquired by US-based Bango two years ago.

Digital marketers use the Audiens customer data platform (CDP) to view all campaign data in one place and analyse audience behavior. The Italian startup believes CDPs are “the new must-have model for high-impact marketing”. “CDPs are a critical technology to any marketer who needs to turbocharge their first-party data and build and manage audiences,” says Jonathan Brech, the company’s newly appointed CEO. Thus far Brech has been the startup’s Chief Commercial Officer; previously he was CEO at Cambridge Data.

Moving forward the Audiens team will upgrade the mathematical models and data science embedded in its consumer behaviour models, which underpin the platform. The company will also incorporate new cloud data experience and machine learning techniques from NHN. According to a press release, the Seoul-based firm has vast amounts of consumer behavior data across cloud, data, advertising, fintech and entertainment. Founded in 2016, the Italian startup has offices in London, the US, Japan, Singapore and South Korea.