John Daly: Push-ing ahead with further acquisitions in spite of pandemic
Tommy Kearns: CEO and co-founder Xtremepush
In a year where many businesses have been content to tighten up their operations during the pandemic, Irish digital marketing software firm Xtremepush has maintained an expansionist policy across Europe and the US.
Co-founded by CEO Tommy Kearns and his business partner Kevin Collins in 2014, it completed the acquisition of Alchemetrics in June, a UK agency specialising in bespoke customer data platforms. This followed the 2018 acquisition of Emailcenter, a UK email service provider.
Last month, Xtremepush announced Beechbrook Capital as a new capital partner, having secured €4.25m funding to support its global growth and acquisition strategy.
“The deal primes Xtremepush for a new and wider phase of expansion,” explains Tommy.
We’re a bootstrapped company, and proudly so. We deliberately haven’t taken on VC money.
"Working with a capital partner like Beechbrook is far more in line with how we want to grow this company. It gives us the ability to go out and make strategic acquisitions if and when the opportunity arises.”
Part of the additional resources will be used to expand its US operations.
“Geographically, the US, and North America generally, is the big one. We do already have traction there, with some really high profile-clients in our key verticals. The US sports betting and gaming industry is exploding right now, and we’re perfectly positioned to capitalise on this,” he says.
The company already work with a number of North American gaming operators, such as Penn National and Rush Street Interactive, in addition to strategic partnership agreements with major betting software vendors SG Digital, Optimove, and SB Tech.
Groupe Dynamite, a fashion retailer with 400 stores across Canada and worldwide, recently chose Xtremepush to reconnect with its customer base, and execute a ‘cart and browse’ recovery strategy at scale.
“It’s about growing our reach on the ground in the US over the next six to 12 months. We’re also making a lot of headway in the other direction, in Eastern Europe and Asia, opening doors in Poland, Bulgaria and Turkey,” says Tommy.
Having enjoyed an almost 100% year-on-year growth since its founding in 2014, the pandemic has had a significant impact in terms of vertical growth in the areas of e-commerce and banking.
“While they each have unique challenges, both are seeing more customers online than ever before, creating a need for better digital engagement and a more holistic understanding of what these customers are doing. And that’s where we are exceptionally strong," he adds.
Owning its own technology is a big differentiator for Xtremepush in the market, allowing complete sight over everything that happens on its platform: “Ultimately, it means we can deliver a faster ‘time-to-value’, where we expect our customers to start seeing return on investment within weeks, not months.”
The current change in consumer habits resulting from the pandemic has also offered significant opportunity for Xtremepush, he adds, with the rise in online purchases playing well across both website and app, collecting insight and possible action strategies for brands who want to do more with their digital customers.
Brands want to reassess their tech stack, from a cost perspective.
"Companies are coming to us looking to consolidate their engagement channels; email, SMS, push messaging and so on. They’re seeing that they can get better functionality from our unified solution than they’ve been getting from disparate point solutions. And at a fair price.”
Its clients include McDonald’s, Paddy Power, Betfair, AIB, Bank of Ireland, Leinster Rugby, and Jobbio.
“I think it’s too early to make long-term predictions, but what we do know is that in certain verticals, like retail banking where customers have been forced online en masse, there’s no going back. Brands must continue to embrace digital, and embrace mobile in particular.”
Tommy does anticipate more jobs being added across the company in the months ahead, over multiple departments and functions.
“We’re approximately at a headcount of 70 right now, and I can see us doubling that in the next few years, as we put more boots on the ground globally. Right now, we are actively recruiting and I encourage people looking for a new challenge in a rapidly growing company to visit our website and take a look at the opportunities we have.”
Xtremepush is motivated by a ‘keep driving hard’ internal motto, in its people and culture. “It’s a reminder that each of us needs to keep progressing and striving for a better product, better service,” he says.
Regarding the possible business landscape across Ireland by 2030, Tommy looks to a country where IT is a leader of opportunities.
We must continue to invest in tech, both infrastructure and training.
“We are recognised in this area, but that can change quickly. There are plenty of countries vying for the attention of tech companies. We can’t get complacent and think it’s ours forever, we need to constantly lead the way in both talent and infrastructure.”
He adds that Government tax policies will continue to play a role in ensuring that Ireland is seen as an attractive place in which to do business. And, as the Brexit deadline of December 31 draws ever closer, he remains hopeful a deal will be found: “Concern without action is irrelevant. There are a lot of unknowns, so it’s about controlling the controllables.
“For businesses, we all need to prepare as best we can for both outcomes, and be ready to adapt further when the time comes. At Xtremepush, we are, and have been for some time, Brexit-ready. We have both EU and UK databases in place, to get out ahead of any potential data compliance issues. We take that very seriously, and nothing has been left to chance.”
