UserZoom raises $100M, acquires EnjoyHQ, to grow its platform to improve UX and other interactive design elements –
Summary
Today a startup called UserZoom, which has built a platform used by companies like Google, Microsoft, PayPal, Salesforce and many others to help them stay off the bad design radar — with tools to evaluate their design and identify where and when it doesn’t work, and how to link it up better with bigger customer experience strategies — is announcing some significant funding to expand its business. It is not disclosing valuation, but de la Nuez notes that this latest investment represents a minority stake in the startup; that it is currently profitable, with revenues growing by 40% last year; and that it’s currently on an annual run rate of $80 million. “It was tedious and manual.” Years of working like that, and he and Mestres and a third co-founder who has since left the company, Javier Darriba, decided to see how and if they could retool the concept as a piece of software. The cost base of employing tech people in Spain is completely different from the Bay Area, de la Nuez said, “and it’s helped us become profitable.” The core of the company’s product is a platform that runs what it refers to as “XIM” (Experience Insights Management), which lets customers test out any digital experience — be it something on the web, or a phone, or a smartwatch or an interactive voice service, and soon, other interfaces such as those you might find in automotive vehicles. What’s giving UserZoom an edge, it seems, is not just its extensive and impressive customer base, but its focus on trying to provide an end-to-end concept of design and experience and how it might fit in with a bigger business strategy.
