Pixis Secures $85 Million in Series C1 Funding to Enhance AI-Powered Marketing Solutions
Pixis, an innovative AI-driven platform designed for brands to streamline and manage their marketing campaigns, has successfully raised $85 million in a Series C1 funding round. The investment was led by Touring Capital, with contributions from Grupo Carso, General Atlantic, Celesta Capital, and Chiratae Ventures. This latest round boosts Pixis’ total funding to $209 million, coinciding with a growing interest among marketers in leveraging AI to enhance their in-house advertising efforts.
Recent research from The Conference Board indicates that a majority of marketers have already incorporated AI into their daily workflows, with many anticipating increased adoption to boost productivity.
Chief among Pixis' achievements, the company reports exceeding $50 million in annual recurring revenue this quarter, serving over 200 brands, including industry giants such as DHL, Joe & The Juice, Sears, and Swiggy. With a year-over-year growth of 140% in 2023, Pixis aims to become profitable by Q4.
According to Pixis co-founder and CEO Shubham Mishra, the post-pandemic landscape has shifted organizational priorities significantly. "Companies are now focused on maximizing profitability and achieving sustainable growth," he explained. "It's about thriving in this new normal, not just surviving."
The journey for Mishra, along with co-founders Hari Valiyath and Vrushali Prasade, began at the Birla Institute of Technology & Science in Pilani, Rajasthan, India. While initially researching generative AI for art and gaming, the trio recognized the vast potential market for AI in marketing and pivoted their focus. They began developing a prototype for generating marketing assets that attracted the attention of a large banking institution, laying the foundation for a comprehensive marketing platform capable of creating assets, targeting customers, and monitoring campaign performance in real-time.
Pixis now operates on three core pillars: Targeting, Creative, and Performance. On the targeting front, it utilizes AI to identify and convert audiences for specific brands, products, or campaigns. Creatively, Pixis generates marketing assets including text, images, and emails. In terms of performance, the platform offers automated ad bidding and budget pacing tools to manage seasonal fluctuations effectively.
Every brand collaborating with Pixis benefits from a set of "customized learnings" tailored to their distinct marketing data and objectives. Mishra notes that these insights enhance the automation and creation tools, providing actionable strategies back to the brands.
"By training our AI engines on a brand's performance data, Pixis can allocate budgets, identify audiences, and generate assets across various marketing partners," Mishra stated. "Our system enables customers to execute delivery actions while dynamically adjusting spending, aligning media budgets with target audiences and creative assets based on patterns identified by our AI."
While there are concerns about generative AI sometimes producing inaccurate information, Mishra assured that Pixis incorporates "manual overrides" to refine its AI outputs, adopting a "fine-tuning" approach for better content control. Nonetheless, the effectiveness of these measures remains to be seen, as direct testing of these features was not conducted.
On the innovation front, Pixis has introduced Pixis Analyze, a chatbot tool allowing users to inquire about campaigns, marketing data, and various "AI actions." Additionally, its ambitious project, Creative Studio, provides an editing suite for refining content produced by its generative AI models. Currently available to existing partners, Creative Studio will launch for new customers next year.
"Our platform is designed to self-fund and enhance profitability through increased budget efficiencies and time savings reinvested back into the business," Mishra emphasized. "With a surge in demand for efficient, scalable, and customizable AI solutions, our products are perfectly aligned with this emerging need."
The recent funding will bolster Pixis' R&D efforts, expand its infrastructure to connect with more publishers and ad networks, and cultivate strategic partnerships. In the immediate future, Pixis plans to grow its workforce of 350, particularly in sales and business development across North America and Latin America, while exploring debt options in Q4 for a potential acquisition (details are currently undisclosed).
By focusing on the intersection of AI and marketing, Pixis is paving the way for a more streamlined and effective approach for brands looking to thrive in the digital landscape.
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