Mailchimp has acquired Chatitive, Inc., a two-way SMS marketing platform that uses context to deliver personalized and conversational mobile messages direct to consumers.
The acquisition enhances Mailchimp’s all-in-one marketing and commerce platform offering, and helps our small business customers reach their audience in new ways.
Mailchimp has been serving entrepreneurs and small businesses for 20 years, and we understand the unique challenges they face. We know they need help with their marketing content and to remain top of mind for their customers. Over the past year, we’ve re-prioritized our product roadmap to bring our customers the tools needed most right now. It’s more important than ever for small businesses to reach their customers where they are, and mobile messaging is an incredibly effective way to do just that.
Chatitive’s experience helping companies leverage mobile messaging to connect with their customers and drive revenue is something our small business customers have been asking for. When paired with the other channels and features on our platform—like email, websites, AI-powered smart tools, and automations—SMS marketing is an especially great solution for businesses to share time sensitive information, like transactional and promotional messaging, and build lasting relationships with their customers.
The Chatitive team has built a user-friendly platform that enables their customers (including Vivino, Universal Music Group, BURST Oral Care, Rover, and Goose Island Beer) to quickly onboard and build relationships with their end consumers through transactional and conversational mobile messaging. The team will be joining Mailchimp to help make SMS marketing simpler so that small businesses can focus on growing their business.
Chatitive was founded by Daniel Pirone, VP of Engineering, in 2016 under Madrona Venture Labs, an incubator for new startups. Today, the company is based in Seattle, Washington, and led by CEO, Andy Hollenbeck, an experienced marketer and leader in the mobile space
As part of the acquisition, Andy will join Mailchimp as Head of Conversational SMS, and other team members will join in technology and customer focused roles. The team will continue to operate under the Chatitive brand initially while also focusing on developing a robust offering for Mailchimp’s small business customers.
This acquisition follows several other strategic acquisitions Mailchimp has made over the past 2 years. In 2019 we acquired Sawa, an automated design platform, and incorporated that technology into our platform with the launch of Creative Assistant, an AI tool that instantly creates beautiful, on-brand designs for our small business customers. We also recently acquired a survey platform, BigTeam, and an AI content platform Inspector 6, to further enhance our platform with smart, AI-driven tools and features.
Visit Mailchimp at https://mailchimp.com/
Visit Chatitive at https://chatitive.com/