Customer Experience Software Leader Medallia Announces $35 Million Investment from Sequoia Capital

PALO ALTO, Calif., September 26, 2012 — Medallia, the global leader in Customer Experience Management software, today announced that it is partnering with Sequoia Capital. Sequoia will invest $35 million, and Sequoia partner Doug Leone will bring his operational skills to the Medallia board, as will the former CEO of Parametric Technology Corporation, Steve Walske. The funding will be used to advance Medallia’s SaaS customer experience platform, which companies use to capture, understand, and act on customer feedback to make customers happier and increase revenue.

“After nearly a decade of refining our approach to bringing companies closer to their customers, it has become clear that a customer experience strategy is no longer a ’nice to have’—it’s a ’must have,’” said Medallia CEO Borge Hald. “In the last year, demand for our platform, including our social media feedback, text analytics, and mobile offerings, has surged. Medallia Social Feedback for Hospitality, which launched just ten months ago, is already used by more than 10,000 hotels worldwide to collect, analyze, and respond to social reviews.”

New board member Steve Walske co-founded and grew Parametric Technology Corporation from $0 to more than $1 billion in revenue as CEO. Doug Leone is a partner at Sequoia Capital, an early business partner to Apple, Oracle, Google, LinkedIn, and many other enduring companies.

“More and more companies are realizing that gathering and responding to customer feedback in real time is a major competitive advantage,” said Leone. “When we began to search for tools to help companies improve their customers’ experience, it quickly became clear that Medallia has the best product, the best team, and the most satisfied users in the industry.”

“This investment will accelerate our ability to help more companies improve their customer experience,” said Hald. In fact, Medallia today announced the launch of its Social Feedback for Retail product. “Our focus is helping companies act on social feedback, and our solution routes reviews and comments to the right location so companies can respond personally to customers. Since Medallia’s social solutions can be fully integrated with surveys we collect across customer stores, call centers, and websites, we expect rapid adoption.”

In 2011, Medallia sent more than 160 million survey invitations and received over 30 million completed customer surveys. More than 100 brands as diverse as Four Seasons, Honeywell, Sephora, and Toyota Financial Services currently use Medallia’s customer experience platform. In 2012, the company has added international customers including Telstra and Sony EU. Medallia was named an industry leader in Forrester’s 2011 WaveTM report on EFM Satisfaction and Loyalty Solutions.