Helsinki’s e-commerce platform Nosto acquires US-based content marketing firm Stackla

Helsinki-based e-commerce platform Nosto has acquired content marketing startup Stackla. This marks Nosto’s first acquisition and provides a strong entrance into the Australian and Southeast Asian markets. To date, Nosto has raised $32.8 million over 4 rounds from investors including OpenOcean Capital, Idinvest, Sanoma Ventures, Tesi, EIB, Wellington Partners, and Kreos Capital.

Terms and conditions of the deal were not disclosed.

Founded in 2011 by Antti Pöyhönen, Jani Luostarinen, and Juha Valvanne, the Nosto platform gives retailers the possibility to provide a personalised shopping experience at every point during the process. Using an AI-driven mechanism, retailers can launch 1 to 1 omnichannel marketing campaigns, all without the need for dedicated and costly IT resources. Ultimately, retailers including Paul Smith, Champion, and Woodhouse Clothing, in over 100 countries around the world using Nosto report increased conversion and revenue.

Stackla was founded in 2012 by Damien Mahoney and Peter Cassidy, the Australian-transplant-to-the-US company specialises in user-generated content marketing. Also AI-driven, the company’s tech actively searches for, discovers, and recommends content, resulting in reduced content costs, while at the same time upping personalised shopping experiences. Stackla counts Canon, Disney, McDonald’s, Toyota, Sony, Lush Cosmetics and Nintendo amongst its client base.

With 79% of consumers reporting that user-generated content affects their purchasing decisions, and are 6x more likely to pull the trigger when a product includes imagery from social media, the synergies between the two companies provide a strong USP for retailers.

“As online shopping accelerates and we crave human connection, consumers increasingly seek the real and relevant user-generated content they trust to help them make purchasing decisions,” says Nosto (and former CEO Klarna North America) CEO Jim Lofgren. “At the same time, brands are struggling to create enough engaging and diverse content to deliver the types of authentic, personalized experiences consumers expect. By pairing Stackla’s unrivaled UGC platform with Nosto’s leading commerce experience platform, we can solve this problem for brands; giving them the ability to create more meaningful shopping experiences that drive results.”