Sendinblue acquires Chatra, Metrilo, and PushOwl for $47 million

Parisian digital marketing platform Sendinblue has announced the acquisitions of chatbot tool (not the town) Chatra, analytics offer Metrilo, and shopify’s top notification pusher PushOwl, for a grand total of $47 million. The trio of purchases arrive just shy of a year since the firm’s $160 million Series B round and will be used to further expand e-commerce offerings for SMB’s.

Founded in 20212 by Armand Thiberge, Sendinblue is already offering B2C and B2B clients an end-to-end marketing solution, and the trilogy of acquisitions is meant only to build upon this theme. Starting next year, with Metrilo, clients will have an easy(ier?) way of monitoring and analysing marketing campaign performance via Metrilo, deploy chatbot notifications based on user behavior and respond to queries via either social channels or directly on their website via Chatra, and last but not least, utilise push notification technology to reduce the all-dreaded abandoned shopping cart instances.

“Pandemic-era restrictions prompted many small and medium-sized businesses to pivot; to digitize their marketing efforts and invest in e-commerce strategies,” comments Sendinblue’s Steffen Schebesta. “The global crisis resulted in a shift in consumer purchasing behavior. Online shopping has accelerated rapidly, and with the acquisition of Chatra, Metrilo, and PushOwl, we’re meeting the needs of these businesses.”

And Schebesta isn’t kidding. According to the Office of National Statistics, “e-commerce grew by 46% in 2020 - its strongest growth for more than a decade – but overall retail sales fell by a record 1.9%.”

Likewise, according to joint study in conjunction with research firm CITE, sendinblue found that 49% of UK shoppers prefer online shopping when it’s with a small business and a staggering 56% say they will continue shop online with small businesses who offer such services. And now the acquisitions and services offer seems all the more compelling.

“Acquiring Metrilo, Chatra and PushOwl are part of Sendinblue’s longer-term vision to expand our marketing capabilities and dive into the growing e-commerce space,” Thiberge. “Now, our all-in-one digital marketing solution will become even more powerful, enabling these businesses to expedite sales and drive strategic business decisions.”