Bangalore-based customer engagement company Capillary has received $4.5 million in investments from American Express, making it the first company in India to receive funding from the investment arm of the US company, reports Times of India. In January, both the companies had signed a joint marketing agreement through which American Express would introduce Capillary’s customer engagement solutions to select medium-sized retail merchants in the US. This solution allows merchants to engage with their customers across in-store, social media, e-mail, local and mobile channels, so as to increase shopper loyalty. Over the past year, American Express and Capillary had also conducted a pilot program in Singapore in which American Express introduced Capillary’s SaaS-based platform to select mid-sized retail merchants. It needs to be noted that American Express has presence in over 50 countries and they own the relations with their merchants unlike Visa and Mastercard who work through banks. So by tying up with American Express, the company is able to approach the merchants directly. Founded in 2008 by Aneesh Reddy and Krishna Mehra, it was initially focusing on the Indian market, but soon realized that their solutions could work equally well in developed countries. Now, Capillary’s platform is used by 150 brands across 10,000 retail locations and these include companies such as Benetton, Nicole Miller, Nike, Marks & Spencer, Puma, Pizza Hut and Tennis Express. Solutions Capillary currently offers solutions such as InTouch (customer engagement), Customer Intelligence (analytics), Campaign Manager (personalized offers), Social Connect (social rewards), Clienteling (tablet app), Lifecycle Marketing (predictive intelligence) and has…
