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Australian SaaS startup Longtail UX secures $5 million capital raise in a funding round led by Investec

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Longtail UX, an Australian SaaS startup that connects searchers to products in a single click, has secured $5 million in new capital in a funding round led by Investec through its Investec Emerging Companies Fund I (IEC Fund I) to accelerate international expansion and deliver a full self-service platform.

With Australian businesses struggling with the impact of COVID-19, the investment is testament to Longtail UX’s industry-first online marketing solution, which has delivered rapid growth in both domestic and international markets, with patents secured or pending in Australia, the USA, Japan, the EU and China. 

This fresh round of funding was completed in two stages and includes a November, 2019 $1.5M bridging round, with this larger Investec-lead raising conducted concurrently and closed on March 19 of this year.

Investec closely monitored Longtail UX’s expansion into global markets as well as rapid adoption of its technologies by major Australian brands including Adore Beauty, Booktopia, Dan Murphy’s, Kogan and Woolworths Group.

What does this funding mean for Longtail UX?

The deal will see Ben Sebel, Co-Manager of the IEC Fund I, from Investec join a 5-person Longtail UX board, alongside the founders, Andreas Dzumla and Will Santow.

Longtail UX Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Will Santow, commented: “We’ve had a close relationship with Investec over a number of years, and throughout that time they’ve been great supporters of our business in several informal but important ways. We’re delighted to have now formalised our partnership with Investec and to officially welcome them onboard.

“This investment comes at a testing time for businesses and shows the belief Investec have in our unique, patented technology as well as recognition of the consistent growth we’re delivering across a broad range of markets.”

How exactly does Longtail UX work?

Longtail UX’s patented search engine marketing (SEM) and search engine optimisation (SEO) technology is the world’s first inventory-driven user experience automation technology. Using long tail search terms – phrases of four or more words – its technology connects searchers to the exact matching products for every single word in just a single click.

All matching results are displayed together on perfectly optimised landing pages that are built within Longtail UX’s system. The system allows the client/website owner to programatically add store listings, maps, articles, reviews and any other type of content that is directly related to the user search query to the landing pages at scale.

These exact match landing pages are incorporated in the publisher’s site via a proprietary link widget and secures more site traffic and higher sales conversion rates for that business.

The unique approach enables industry-first ROI insights in Organic Search, and allows Longtail UX to model the size of the ‘Longtail’ client opportunity up front, both in terms of incremental traffic and revenue, through our exclusive Scorecard tool.

The investment will enhance the launch of Longtail UX’s new product – ‘Google SOS’ (‘Google Shopping Ads on-page Suggestions’, or ‘Google Shopping on Steroids’ as the project is named internally) which will allow online retailers to increase return on ad spend on Google Shopping Ads by creating landing pages that show multiple products related to the search, rather than just single items, as is currently the case with traditional Shopping Ads.

Co-Founder and Co-CEO Andreas Dzumla added: “We’ve built a unique product that is delivering massive value for our clients across a wide range of industries. Having Investec on board increases our reach to support more businesses in enhancing customer’s search experiences, securing site traffic and gauging ROI on SEO investment.”

“The development of a full self-service platform will give our clients an unprecedented level of insight and control over their SEM and SEO efforts, and will ultimately be an incredible game-changer for the industry.”