Heap Raises $110M to Fund the Future of Digital Analytics
Heap, a startup that helps businesses build better digital experiences by surfacing hidden friction and opportunities in the customer journey, has closed on a $110 million Series D round. That brings the company’s valuation to $960 million and solidifies Heap as one of this year’s heavy-hitters among digital analytics platforms for product builders, growth marketers, and analytics teams.
Sixth Street Growth led the round, bringing Heap’s total capital raised to $205 million. New and existing investors, including the Growth Equity business within Goldman Sachs Asset Management, NewView Capital, Menlo Ventures, DTCP, Triangle Peak Partners, Alliance Bernstein Private Credit Investors, Maverick Ventures, and Sharespost, also participated in the round.
The purpose of Heap’s new funding
Heap is one of a growing number of venture-backed firms making headway in the digital insights space. With the pandemic accelerating the need for businesses to establish strong digital footprints, Heap CEO Ken Fine believes that digital insights—which help companies understand their customers’ needs and see where opportunities lie—are increasingly relevant and necessary. Fine says this round of funding will be used to scale Heap’s global operations and accelerate research and development of its digital analytics platform. The company works with clients like Northwestern Mutual, ETrade, Freshworks, Snapfish, LendingClub, Amway, and Redfin.
“We’re confident that the digital economy will only continue to grow and that the digital relationship with customers will become even more important,” Fine says. “Making that digital presence one that is delightful, easy, and that continues to meet customer needs even as those needs rapidly change will continue to be paramount to succeeding as a business in today’s world.”
In this morning’s announcement, Fine said that the new funding will help Heap “further innovate to foster the significant business outcomes that McKinsey says can be achieved, including 30% gains in efficiency, customer satisfaction, employee engagement, and operational performance.”
Heap’s services and trajectory
The past year has been a busy one for Fine and his team. In 2021, Heap released a suite of data-science driven capabilities called Illuminate, designed to pinpoint hidden friction points and help teams avoid missing anything important in their behavioral data. An invite-only Journey Maps feature was also released in beta to surface all of the different journeys users make through a digital experience and compare paths leading to the same goal. Journey Maps also measures the impact of optional steps in a funnel.
The company is reporting triple-digit growth in 2021, along with a series of key executive appointments, including Rachel Obstler as Executive Vice President of Product, Ahmed Quadri as Chief Customer Officer, Sean Andrew as Chief Revenue Officer, and Steve Love as Chief Financial Officer. Moving into 2022, Heap is planning an expansion of its Illuminate suite, along with an expanded partner ecosystem.
According to Michael McGinn, partner and co-head at Sixth Street Growth, Heap’s scalable architecture made it a desirable opportunity, as did the company’s data-driven culture.
“Their strategy for continuing to create innovative technology will put more advanced and easy-to-use digital insights into the hands of daily practitioners so they can quickly improve their products and accelerate their business,” explained McGinn. “We look forward to supporting Ken and his team in their next phase of growth.”
Stephanie Miles is a senior editor at Street Fight.
