Marketo
AcquiredSan Jose, US · Founded 1982 · 42,957 employees on LinkedIn · 7 known investors
Adobe offers a catalog of creative software applications for individuals and businesses, spanning image editing, video editing, design, document management, and generative AI. Its products are marketed to creative professionals, businesses, and consumers.
Also known as Adobe Marketo Engage · Marketo Engage · Marketo, Inc.
Investors · 7
Company profile
researched Aug 2026Marketo, Inc. is an American software company headquartered in San Mateo, California, that develops and sells marketing automation software for account-based marketing, along with related marketing services and products including SEO and content creation. Its product line has included the Marketo Engagement Platform, Marketo Lead Management, Marketo Sales Insight, Marketo Revenue Cycle Analytics and Marketo Social Marketing, plus LaunchPoint, an app and services network for marketers introduced in November 2012.
Since being acquired by Adobe in 2018, the software is offered as Adobe Marketo Engage, positioned within Adobe's business/Experience Cloud portfolio as a marketing automation platform used to manage leads, send automated personalized email, segment and nurture customers, and track program performance. Adjacent capabilities documented by Adobe include Smart Campaigns, Dynamic Chat and interactive webinars, supported by developer documentation, certification programs and the Marketing Nation user community.
Founding story
Phil Fernandez, Jon Miller and David Morandi founded Marketo in 2006 after working together at E.piphany, a San Mateo CRM software company whose market capitalization peaked near $9 billion in 1999 before collapsing; the remains of E.piphany were sold to SSA Global Technologies for $329 million in September 2005. Fernandez had been E.piphany's president and COO, Miller a vice president of product marketing who joined in 1999, and Morandi its CTO. Their founding premise was that B2B marketing software delivered on-premise was too costly and slow to prove value, and that a software-as-a-service delivery model would let marketing teams buy it as an operating expense. They paid $4,000 for the Marketo.com domain and raised a Series A from InterWest Partners in October 2006.
Business model
Marketo sells subscription marketing automation software delivered as a service rather than installed on-premise, a model chosen at founding so that marketing teams could purchase it as an operating expense. As part of Adobe, Marketo Engage is sold within Adobe's business software portfolio, supported by an ecosystem of LaunchPoint partner applications, certifications and community programs.
Software-as-a-service subscriptions to its marketing automation platform, sold to businesses.
Traction
Marketo sold to 15 customers in its first month after the March 2008 launch of Marketo Lead Management and had 80 customers by the end of 2008. It reached a Nasdaq listing in 2013, was valued at approximately $1.79 billion in the 2016 Vista Equity Partners take-private, and was acquired by Adobe for $4.75 billion in 2018.
Latest developments
Adobe continues to publish product documentation, release notes, tutorials and certifications for Adobe Marketo Engage and its Dynamic Chat capability, and positions the product within its business software portfolio for orchestrating customer experiences.
▸Full profile — market position, technology, go-to-market, geography, history, risks & controversies
Market position
Adobe describes Marketo Engage as the largest marketing automation platform and a long-standing tool for chief marketing officers, valued for scalability, reliability and openness. Marketo is grouped with marketing automation providers such as HubSpot, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, ActiveCampaign, Klaviyo and Zeta Global, and its lead scoring and lead nurturing frameworks became widely used reference practices in B2B marketing.
Marketo applied a software-as-a-service delivery model to B2B marketing automation at a time when comparable enterprise marketing software was sold as on-premise deployments with long sales cycles, and it popularized lead scoring — assigning numerical values to prospects from demographic attributes and behavioral signals to determine sales readiness — together with an open partner ecosystem (LaunchPoint) and a large practitioner community (Marketing Nation).
Technology
A cloud-delivered marketing automation platform providing lead management, automated and personalized email, segmentation and nurture workflows, smart campaigns, lead scoring based on demographic and behavioral signals, sales insight, revenue cycle analytics, website personalization, social marketing, conversational marketing via Dynamic Chat and interactive webinars, with a developer API and documented integrations such as Salesforce CRM synchronization. In 2017 the company announced plans to run its marketing automation software on Google Cloud Platform, a move later paused in 2019.
Go-to-market
Marketo built demand through content marketing before its product shipped: co-founder Jon Miller published a blog on changing B2B buying behavior and authored The Definitive Guide to Lead Nurturing and The Definitive Guide to Lead Scoring, which circulated widely among B2B marketers. The company sold to 15 customers in the first month after launching Marketo Lead Management and cultivated the Marketing Nation user community and the LaunchPoint partner network. Under Adobe, the product is distributed through Adobe's business software channels alongside Experience Cloud, with documentation, tutorials, certification and live and on-demand learning events.
B2B marketing organizations and enterprise marketing teams, including chief marketing officers, marketing operations practitioners and demand generation teams at fast-growth and enterprise companies.
Geography
Headquartered in San Mateo, California, United States; the platform serves marketers globally and previously acquired an Israeli company, Insightera.
History
Marketo's initial concept, helping companies manage Google AdWords spend, was abandoned for lack of product-market fit, and the company pivoted to marketing automation. Marketo Lead Management launched in March 2008, followed by Marketo Sales Insight in 2009 and Marketo Revenue Cycle Analytics in 2010; LaunchPoint, a marketing app and services network, was introduced in November 2012. The company acquired Crowd Factory in April 2012 to add social media marketing capabilities and Insightera, an Israeli website personalization company, in December 2013 for $20 million in cash and stock. Marketo went public on Nasdaq under the ticker MKTO on May 17, 2013. In 2016 Vista Equity Partners agreed to acquire the company for approximately $1.79 billion; shareholders approved the deal with nearly 99 percent of represented shares in August 2016 and the transaction closed, taking Marketo private and ending its Nasdaq listing. Steve Lucas was named chief executive officer in October 2016. In August 2017 Marketo announced a six-year partnership to move its marketing automation software onto Google Cloud Platform, which was paused in 2019. Adobe announced its acquisition of Marketo for $4.75 billion on September 20, 2018.
Risks & controversies
The 2016 Vista Equity Partners take-private drew two shareholder class action lawsuits. A suit filed in July 2016 in California federal court by shareholder Robert Rosati alleged the proxy statement omitted material information on management conflicts of interest, including discussions with Vista about continued employment and rollover equity, as well as the merger process, the analysis of financial adviser Morgan Stanley & Co. and company financial projections, and named Fernandez and directors Lynne Biggar, Cambria Dunaway, Roger S. Siboni, Susan L. Bostrom, Tae Hea Nahm and Wesley R. Wasson. A separate suit by Sonila Porwal in Santa Clara County Superior Court alleged directors breached fiduciary duties by selling the company too cheaply through an allegedly defective process. Court documents indicated the deal would generate more than $58 million for Fernandez. Separately, the planned migration to Google Cloud Platform announced in 2017 was paused in 2019.
Compiled by commissioned research from 8 cited public sources — announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.
Key figures
latest reportedCompany-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed — not independently audited.
Timeline · 12
launches, deals, and filingsAdobe Systems announced it was buying Marketo for $4.75 billion; Adobe Inc. is listed as Marketo's parent company.
$4.8B source ↗
Marketo announced it would move all of its marketing automation software onto Google Cloud Platform as part of a six-year partnership integrating Google tools into Marketo products; the effort was paused in 2019.
The take-private transaction closed, making Marketo a private, independent company in Vista's portfolio; its common stock ceased trading on Nasdaq.
$1.8B source ↗
Vista Equity Partners announced an agreement to acquire Marketo for approximately $1.79 billion; the deal was announced May 31 and shareholders representing more than 37 million shares approved it with nearly 99 percent in favor.
$1.8B source ↗
Marketo acquired Insightera, an Israeli website personalization company, for $20 million in cash and stock.
$20M source ↗
Marketo went public on May 17, 2013, trading on Nasdaq under the ticker MKTO; press coverage reported the IPO raised approximately US$79 million and that shares rose sharply on debut.
$79M source ↗
Marketo introduced LaunchPoint, an app and service network for marketing.
Acquisition of social marketing app developer Crowd Factory added social media marketing capabilities to Marketo's application suite.
Marketo shipped its first product, Marketo Lead Management, after pivoting away from an initial focus on managing Google AdWords spend.
Dated company events from announcements, filings, and press; legal rows summarize public dockets and regulator releases.
▸Research sources · 8
primary sources listed
- Marketoadobe.com · web
8 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does Marketo do?
- Marketo is a B2B marketing automation software company, now part of Adobe as Adobe Marketo Engage.
- Who are Marketo's investors?
- Marketo's investors include Crosslink Capital, Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator (ERA), Fuel Ventures, IVP (Institutional Venture Partners), Mango Capital, New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Storm Ventures.
- Where is Marketo headquartered?
- Marketo is headquartered in San Jose, US.