Appboy Announces Plans To Rename Company to Braze, Cited as a Leader by Independent Research Firm

NEW YORK, Sept. 19, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Appboy, the global lifecycle engagement technology, has been recognized as a Leader in The Forrester Wave™: Mobile Engagement Automation (MEA), Q3 2017 evaluation. In addition today, Appboy is announcing an official rename of the company to "Braze" — a representation of the strong, unwavering connection that its technology provides between people and the brands they love. The company has also received backing from Meritech, a leading provider of growth stage venture capital–on the heels of recent Series D funding led by ICONIQ Capital–to fuel their continued success.

Based on Forrester's rigorous process which evaluated 11 of the most significant MEA solutions providers, Appboy (soon to be Braze) received the highest score in both the Current Offering and Strategy categories in the space. The report noted Braze as offering a "'born-mobile' platform with a well-designed, clean interface for audience creation, customer journey mapping, testing, and administration."

In the Wave on Mobile Engagement Automation, Forrester stated, "The next battleground to win, serve, and retain customers is in the moment. Enterprises must pivot toward delivering proactive, hyperpersonalized content and services when and where a consumer needs or wants them." The report also states, "Braze's vision for sharing, flow, and interoperability of data, its speed, and its use of AI impresses customers today and will lead most customers' use cases for engagement automation."

The challenge for enterprises is to understand how mobile has reshaped their organizations and the customer journey. Mobile engagement is more than push notifications and SMS. It includes email and cross-channel capabilities that must deliver brilliant messaging experiences at every turn and inform personalized interactions in every channel. As a result, the solutions that brands build into their technology stack must communicate seamlessly with each other, regardless of the devices, platform, channels, or data sources that are involved.

"We are very pleased with our evaluation by Forrester as a Leader defining, in our opinion, the current market and the future of engagement," said Bill Magnuson, CEO and cofounder of Appboy (soon to be Braze). "We built our product and company for an evolving cross-channel landscape with mobile at its vanguard. The evaluation emphasizes our sophisticated product capabilities, enterprise-class platform, and overall strategic vision to build personal and humanized interactions and connections between brands and customers."

The renaming of the company to Braze signifies another step in a period of tremendous growth, and a clear recognition that the technology ecosystem of channels and platforms extends beyond apps. The name reflects both the product–which has been cross-channel and cross-platform since day one–as well as the company's mission to bring people together through technology. The word braze means to bond, to unite, or to join with considerable strength. At its core, the company, Braze, brings unity to the brand-customer relationship, and brings people, data, and technology together.

"Our rename comes at a time of significant growth, and as we look ahead at the constantly evolving technology landscape, the name Braze serves to deliver on the future of wherever the market takes us," said Marissa Aydlett, SVP of Marketing at Appboy (soon to be Braze). "Customers are demanding brilliant experiences, and with Braze, brands will continue to be empowered by the speed, power, and reliability of our product to create unified, cohesive messaging through the joining of people, data, and technology."

The naming project was led by Lexicon––creators of Dasani, Febreze, fios, Pentium, Sonos, and many billion dollar brands. Assessments, including worldwide linguistics and a consumer study of 64,000 people, determined Braze as innovative, fast, and cutting edge, while centering on communicating with people.

A full rebrand is expected in late 2017. To learn more about the rename and access The Forrester Wave™: Mobile Engagement Automation, Q3 2017 report, visit Appboy.com.

About Appboy (soon to be Braze)

We are the strong, unwavering bond between people and the brands they love. We join data, technology, and teams together to deliver brilliant messaging experiences at every turn, resulting in better experiences and increased retention, lifetime value, and ROI. We are a force, united in action. We are now Appboy, and we are soon to be, Braze.

With Appboy (soon to be Braze) brands seamlessly gather and manage actionable customer data, allowing them to reach their audience with targeted, personalized cross-channel messaging experiences. Appboy (soon to be Braze) is a venture-backed company of over 175 employees, with offices in New York City, San Francisco, and London. Appboy (soon to be Braze) has been recognized as a Digiday Signal Award Finalist for Best Marketing Automation Platform and Best CRM Platform, Top 10 MarTech Upstart by Business Insider, VentureBeat Omnichannel MMA "Best Bet," and was selected by Forbes as a Cloud100 Rising Star. Learn more at Appboy.com.

About Meritech Capital Partners

Meritech Capital Partners is a leading provider of growth stage venture capital to category-defining private technology companies, and has been one of the top performing venture firms of the past two decades. With over $3 billion under management, Meritech primarily leads investments into companies with proven and differentiated technology. Meritech investments in industry-leading companies include Alteryx, Anaplan, Box, Cloudera, Coupa, Datadog, Facebook, Hybris, Looker, Mulesoft, Netezza, NetSuite, Proofpoint, Roblox, and Tableau. Meritech is located in Palo Alto, CA and can be found at www.meritechcapital.com.  

Contact: 
Stephanie Cortez 
Senior Communications Specialist 
909-319-1219 
[email protected]

SOURCE Appboy

Related Links

http://www.appboy.com