MessageGears

MessageGears is an Atlanta, Georgia-based enterprise customer engagement platform used by large consumer brands to personalize and send marketing communications across email, SMS, mobile push, in-app, embedded content, web and TV channels. Its differentiating architecture accesses brands' existing data repositories — such as Snowflake, AWS or BigQuery-based warehouses — directly rather than relying on cloud data syncs into a vendor-managed database, which the company positions as reducing latency and data-security exposure while enabling real-time personalization at scale.

The company began in 2010 as a provider of cloud-based email infrastructure and APIs aimed at inbox deliverability and anti-spam compliance, with software running on premise and connecting to customer databases while delivery was handled as a SaaS component. It later expanded into cross-channel campaign management, adding segmentation, SMS and mobile push. In January 2023 MessageGears acquired Swrve, a mobile app marketing platform whose SDKs cover mobile apps as well as TV products such as Roku and Apple TV, adding native in-app experiences, mobile push, embedded content and an analytics feedback loop. Swrve now operates under the MessageGears brand, and the two platforms were slated for integration over subsequent quarters while continuing to be developed individually.

Named customers cited across company and press sources include Expedia, Indeed, OpenTable, Party City, Rakuten, T-Mobile, Home Depot, Best Buy, Chick-fil-A, GEICO and Activision on the MessageGears side, and Playrix, Emirates, Ryanair, Telefónica and Domino's among Swrve's enterprise mobile customers.

Founding story

MessageGears was founded in 2010 in Atlanta by Dan Roy, who previously led software engineering for Delta Air Lines' website and served as CTO of email marketing firm Accucast and director of software engineering at GetThere.com, together with co-founders and principal engineers Taylor Jones and Michael Robinson. The founders' insight was that enterprise senders held the customer data needed for personalization behind their own firewalls while campaigns had to be sent from an outside software-as-a-service system, so the product split the problem: on-premise software connected directly to customer databases while a SaaS component managed delivery and deliverability. The company started with seed funding and joined Georgia Tech's Advanced Technology Development Center for fundraising guidance and entrepreneur community support.

Business model

MessageGears sells a subscription enterprise SaaS customer engagement platform to large B2C brands. Rather than requiring customers to copy data into a vendor-managed system, the platform connects directly to the customer's own data warehouse or database and uses a hybrid architecture: segmentation and personalization run against the customer's data environment while delivery runs through a multi-tenant cloud service. Revenue is generated from enterprise marketing teams that route email, SMS, mobile push, in-app and embedded content campaigns through the platform.

Enterprise software revenue from B2C brands that use the platform for cross-channel campaign personalization and message delivery at scale across email, SMS, mobile push, in-app, embedded content, web and TV.

Traction

At the time of its 2014 ATDC graduation the company reported roughly 50 customers and more than 100 million messages sent per month, with a stated goal of reaching a billion messages. By 2022-2023 it counted large consumer brands including Expedia, OpenTable, T-Mobile, Rakuten, Indeed, Party City, Home Depot, Best Buy and Chick-fil-A as customers, had raised $80 million in total funding, and reported a growing pipeline. The Swrve acquisition added enterprise mobile customers such as Playrix, Emirates, Ryanair, Telefónica and Domino's.

Latest developments

In December 2022 MessageGears completed a $62 million growth financing led by Long Ridge Equity Partners with participation from Argentum Group and Atlanta Ventures, bringing cumulative funding to $80 million, and added Long Ridge's Angad Singh to its board. In January 2023 it acquired Swrve for undisclosed terms in a cash-and-stock transaction funded partly from that round, retaining all Swrve employees; Long Ridge was advised by Clearwater International. Swrve has since been rebranded as MessageGears, with its documentation and mobile product pages consolidated under the MessageGears brand, and the two platforms were to be integrated over the following quarters.