Tuesday 21 March 2017

Akeneo raises £10,5 million to improve e-commerce product management

Okay, okay. 'Boss!' What, Voice? 'What's that ten comma five?' Eh? 'In your title, man. Ten comma five.' Oh, that. Uh, that's not my title. It's from the PR email. For some reason they didn't want to put ten point five. 'Well, it takes all sorts, I suppose.' Yeah.

French-American start-up Akeneo has raised £10,5 million from Partech and Alven Capital. Akeneo is the leading provider of open-source product information management (PIM) software, a resource that is becoming increasingly important for companies competing in e-commerce. The capital raised will enable Akeneo to accelerate its development internationally and to strengthen its R&D team.

Right. If you're wondering, dear reader(s), why I'm doing a PR email again, there's two reasons. Firstly, I've looked around, but haven't seen any news I like today. 'Ha!' But secondly, I'm a lazy bastard. These PR people just lay it on a plate. 'Yeah, but they're liars, boss.' What?! Who says?! 'Well, not liars, exactly. But they're just promoting stuff, ain't they?' Oh, like journalists, you mean? 'Well, that's another story. I don't think we have the time to go into whether journalists -' Shut up! This is my blog, you utter idiot! / Anyway ...

Akeneo, founded in France in 2013, has created a collaborative open source platform to optimize product information management. PIM has been likened to customer-relation management (CRM) for products: it brings together detailed, high-quality data about products across sales channels, helping manufacturers and e-commerce companies better manage and market products, improve conversion rates, enhance SEO, and improve productivity. The Akeneo PIM solution also makes it possible to scale and customize e-commerce initiatives far more rapidly.

Okay, okay. I'll tell you, dear reader(s), it's at times like this that I ask myself: "What does Frédéric de Gombert have to say about this affair?" Unfortunately ... 'Boss! Look! -'

"We work with many brands and distributors that are in the process of moving their operations definitively into the e-commerce world," said Akeneo CEO and cofounder Frédéric de Gombert. "Our belief is that there cannot be effective and lasting digital transformation if it does not include product data quality as a core focus."

Well, that is a surprise! Nice one, Voice, for spotting that. I forgive your earlier idiocy. 'Very wise, boss. I mean, you know what I'm like.' Yeah. / Right, just a bit more, then we can talk about music or politics or something.

Akeneo was co-founded by four entrepreneurs with deep backgrounds in e-commerce. The co-founders include three French entrepreneurs: CEO Frédéric de Gombert, engineering lead Nicolas Dupont and CTO Benoit Jacquemont, and one American, Yoav Kutner. Kutner was a co-founder of Magento, one of the leading global e-commerce platforms, which was purchased by Ebay in 2011. Investor Roy Rubin, a former CEO and co-founder of Magento, also joined the Akeneo board in 2016.

Okay.

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Okay, okay. Anything else? Music? I'm listening to The Stone Roses, various tracks, like. / I think the chances of a classic third album to match the first one are pretty slim now. However, we still have the old stuff, don't we? 'Boss, why didn't you have a word with Ian Brown about it, when you bumped into him in the street?' Ha! I'm too shy, man.

My music? Well ... ah, don't worry about it, reader(s), for Christ's sake! After Easter, all right? I'm having a week off soon, anyway. And you're all finance, so why do you care? Just forget about it. FFS!