The company behind the AI-driven customer intelligence and automation platform Sturdy has raised $3.1 million US in funding. Sturdy plans to use the capital to continue its early growth, broaden market awareness and strengthen its customer intelligence solution.
The solution’s customers and target customers are B2B SaaS companies and other subscription-based businesses.
“SaaS companies collect a ton of information from their customers every day, but much of it fails to convert to useful and actionable data. Now using AI and automations businesses can proactively understand whether their customers are likely to churn, which features will entice them to renew, are they experiencing bugs, are they happy or not, and much more,” said Lawson DeVries, Managing General Partner, Grotech Ventures. “Customer retention and expansion are critical for SaaS businesses to maintain consistent growth trajectories, especially as we head into a more challenging environment for acquiring net new customers.”
Is focusing on the B2B marketplace less risky for companies seeking stable cash flow? Apparently not. According to a new study, unpaid B2B trade debt has become a major obstacle for Asian companies trading on both domestic and export markets. The Atradius Payment Practices Barometer Survey for Asia found a 60% increase in B2B bad debts that could not be collected this year compared to their 2021 survey.
The study surveyed businesses in China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Singapore, Taiwan, Vietnam and in the United Arab Emirates for the 2022 edition. Taiwanese businesses reported bad debt write-off figures that were three times higher than found in the past survey of the market. Losses were equal to 8% of the total value of B2B invoices.
“The outlook for growth in Asia remains relatively robust at around 5% in both this year and 2023,” said Andreas Tesch, Chief Market Officer of Atradius. “But many of the region’s businesses operate across the world in the current deeply unsettled period, where the ongoing impact of the pandemic and geopolitical upheaval has meant a downward revision of the outlook for global growth to just above 3%. Companies in Asia are feeling the pinch from this widespread disruption in the global trading arena.”
Power Digital has appointed Stephanie Feldman as its first Chief Marketing Officer. She joins the organization from consultancy PwC to drive the strategic vision for the brand, positioning Power Digital as the premier digital partner for B2C and B2B companies seeking to grow.
“Hiring a CMO for Power Digital has been a goal of ours for quite some time now but we wanted to make sure we got the hire right and got a dynamic leader,” said Grayson Lafrenz, CEO and founder of Power Digital. “We looked for a long time and we found the perfect fit in Stephanie! I could not be more excited that Stephanie is leading us on this transformative journey and joining our Executive team. Her experience, energy and passion to take Power Digital’s brand marketing to the next level is exactly what we were looking for, and we could not have asked for a better addition. It’s time for everyone to know who we are and what we do, and I am confident Stephanie will do that, and more.”
