Sojern

Sojern is a provider of data-driven digital travel marketing solutions that utilize programmatic buying and machine learning technology.[1][2] Sojern partners with travel companies including airlines, OTAs, hotels, and rental car companies to collect anonymized (non-personally identifiable) traveler profiles based on consumers' search and booking behaviors on these sites.[2][3] The company utilizes this data to target travelers and deliver advertising across a number of media channels.[1][3] Recognized as a Deloitte Technology Top 500 Fastest Growing Company[4] for 6 years in a row, Sojern is headquartered in San Francisco and has teams based in Berlin, Dubai, Dublin, Hong Kong, Istanbul, London, Mexico City, New York, Omaha, Paris, São Paulo, Singapore and Sydney.

Sojern
TypePrivate
IndustryTravel/Data Advertising
FoundedOmaha, NE, September 2007 (2007-09)
FounderGordon Whitten
Headquarters
San Francisco, CA
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Mark Rabe (CEO)
Aman Kothari (CFO)
Noreen Henry (Chief Revenue Officer)
Kurt Weinsheimer (Chief Solutions Officer)
Nancy Koshiyama (Chief People Officer)
Paul Huie (SVP and General Counsel)
Number of employees
300+
SubsidiariesAdphorus

History

Originally based in Omaha, Nebraska, Sojern was founded in 2007 by Gordon Whitten.[5] In April 2011, Yahoo! veteran Mark Rabe succeeded Whitten as CEO, though Whitten has stayed on as a member of the board of directors.[5]

Sojern began in the boarding pass advertising space; it was the first company in the U.S. with exclusive patents for Printed and Online Boarding Pass customization technology.[6][7][8] In 2008, the company’s airline partners, including Delta Air Lines and Continental Airlines, began utilizing Sojern’s technology to offer targeted ads on boarding passes.[9][10] Sojern released a new media platform, the Sojern Traveler Platform (STP), in 2011 that focused on improving its technology's targeting capabilities.[6][11]

To protect its platform technology, the company received a U.S. Patent for “providing customized or personalized content, relevant and timely messages and targeted advertising to travelers based on their destination and dates of travel” in March 2012.[12]

Since its founding, Sojern has been expanding with a 3,811% fiscal year revenue growth between 2008 and 2012.[13] They've made Deloitte Fast 500 List five years in a row (from 2013-2017).[14][13][15] The company has also made moves towards international expansion, establishing a London office in 2013 and offices in Dubai and Singapore in 2015.[3][16] The company made its first acquisition in November 2017 when it purchase Facebook and Instagram marketing partner Adphorus, an Istanbul-based advertising tech startup, for an undisclosed amount.[17]

Product and data collection

The Sojern Traveler Platform collects data on travelers searching and booking behaviors and uses it to place ads in front of travelers while they are shopping for travel.[2][6][11] Specifically, the company offers solutions in such areas as display advertising, mobile, video, Facebook campaigns, prospecting, and retargeting.[6][18] Sojern uses data on traveler behavior in addition to targeting algorithms and programmatic bidding to provide these solutions.[2][19]

In 2016, Sojern became the first company in travel to be named a DoubleClick Certified Marketing Partner, giving them access to the full suite of DoubleClick Marketing products, including YouTube.[20]

Privacy

Sojern collects and uses anonymous, non-personally identifiable information.[3][6][21][22] In order to identify what information and offers a site visitor might be interested in, anonymous cookies record which pages a site visitor has browsed or which products were purchased on partners’ websites.[22] This data is anonymous and cannot be used to identify visitors.[22]

In addition to using data to advertise to travelers, Sojern also provides reports and insights on global travel trends. Their travel trends reports have been cited by several sites including HuffPost, USA Today, and Fortune.[23][24][25]

Sojern has also released joint research on travel and consumer trends with Think with Google.[26]

Funding

With more than $40 million raised, Sojern ranked #14 on travel news website Skift’s “Top 31 Most Heavily Venture-Funded Startups in Travel.”[27] Sojern received $16 million in Series A round funding in 2008, $10 million and then $7.5 million in Series B in 2013, and secured a Series C funding round of $10 million in 2014.[28][29] The company’s investors include Industry Ventures, Focus Ventures, Norwest Venture Partners, Trident Capital, and Triangle Peak Partners.[11][28]

In 2016, Sojern announced they hit the $100 million-annual revenue run rate threshold.[30]

References
  1. "Sojern". CrunchBase. Retrieved 10 March 2014.
  2. "Sojern confirms $7.5 million funding". EyeforTravel Limited. Retrieved 11 March 2014.
  3. "Sojern brings its Big Data travel technology to Europe". Travolution. Retrieved 13 March 2014.
  4. "Deloitte Fast 500 Technology Companies 2017" (PDF).
  5. Stacy, Michael. "Sojern brings Yahoo! veteran Mark Rabe aboard as CEO". Silicon Prairie News. Retrieved 13 March 2014.
  6. Lunden, Ingrid. "Sojern Raises $7.5 Million For Its Push Into Travel Tech And Targeted Travel Ads". TechCrunch. Retrieved 12 March 2014.
  7. "United States Patent 8,131,592". USPTO. Retrieved 31 March 2014.
  8. "United States Patent 8,150,731". USPTO. Retrieved 31 March 2014.
  9. Prior, Anna. "Delta Launches Online Boarding-Pass Ads". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 18 March 2014.
  10. Yu, Roger. "Airlines turn boarding passes into ad space". USA TODAY. Retrieved 18 March 2014.
  11. Schaal, Dennis. "Sojern Raises $10 Million in Series C Funding Round". Skift. Retrieved 12 March 2014.
  12. "Sojern Receives U.S. Patent for Method to Provide Customized Messages to Travelers". Retrieved 13 March 2014.
  13. "Technology Fast 500 2013 Ranking" (PDF). Deloitte.
  14. "Deloitte Fast 500 Winners' Brochure" (PDF). Deloitte.
  15. "Deloitte Fast 500 Winner's Brochure" (PDF). Deloitte.
  16. Sojern. "Sojern Continues Its Global Expansion with New Offices in the Middle East and in Asia". www.prnewswire.com. Retrieved 2016-11-30.
  17. Sojern. "Sojern Acquires Adphorus to Accelerate Facebook Adoption for the Travel Industry". www.prnewswire.com. Retrieved 2018-01-11.
  18. "Company Overview of Sojern Inc". Bloomberg L.P.
  19. "Sojern Takes Flight: Big Data Travel Company Reports More Than Double Year-on-Year Growth" (Press release). March 7, 2013.
  20. "Find a Certified Marketing Partner - DoubleClick". DoubleClick by Google. Retrieved 2016-12-01.
  21. "Travelport and Sojern Forge Partnership to Provide Destination Targeted Content on Travel Itineraries".
  22. "Website Privacy Policy".
  23. Green, Dane Steele (May 31, 2015). "Cuba: So What Now?". HuffPost.
  24. "Fourth of July weekend brings explosive travel blitz". USA TODAY. Retrieved 2016-12-01.
  25. "What Americans should expect when traveling to Cuba". Fortune. 2015-08-14. Retrieved 2016-12-01.
  26. "Travel Trends 2016: Data Reveals Hot Spots and New Consumer Insights". Think with Google. Retrieved 2016-12-01.
  27. Ali, Rafat (January 31, 2014). "The Top 31 Most Heavily Venture-Funded Startups In Travel". Skift.
  28. May, Kevin (December 17, 2013). "Sojern wins $10M funding round as travel marketing goes hi-tech". Phocuswire.
  29. Hoge, Patrick (December 2013). "Sojern raises $10 million more for travel data, ads". American City Business Journals.
  30. O'Neil, Sean (November 3, 2016). "Programmatic native ads show promise for Sojern, Google, and San Francisco Travel [INFOGRAPHIC]". Phocuswire.
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