Braze, Inc.

Braze, Inc.

Company type	Public
Industry	Software, Marketing technology
Founded	2011 (2011)
Founder	Bill Magnuson, Jon Hyman, Mark Ghermezian
Headquarters	New York City , United States
Area served	Global
Products	Customer engagement platform, multichannel marketing software, CRM, loyalty rewards system, Sage AI by Braze
Website	www.braze.com

Braze, Inc. is a cloud-based software enterprise located in New York City, specializing in multichannel marketing through its customer engagement platform.

History

Established in 2011 under the name Appboy by founders Bill Magnuson, Jon Hyman, and Mark Ghermezian, the company initially raised $3 million to build its customer engagement offerings. In 2016, it expanded its product suite by unveiling Canvas, a CRM and loyalty rewards system.

Following a $50 million Series D funding round in 2017, Appboy rebranded as Braze to better represent its broadened strategic vision. The next year saw the introduction of Braze Alloys, an integration ecosystem connecting over 45 partner applications such as Segment and Amplitude. During this phase, Braze also secured $80 million in Series E financing at an $850 million valuation and entered the Singapore market.

By 2019, Braze had incorporated Google AMP technology into its email services and exceeded $100 million in annual recurring revenue, signaling robust financial growth. In 2020, the company took a principled position by pausing Facebook ad campaigns due to concerns over content moderation and supported Black entrepreneurs via the Tech for Black Founders program. At that time, Braze was facilitating more than 100 billion messages each month and had amassed over $175 million in funding.

Braze has contributed to industry knowledge with publications like the Data Privacy Report and partnered with organizations such as Skyscanner to analyze travel sector trends. Its platform capabilities were further enhanced through integrations with Snowflake and Shopify.

In October 2021, Braze submitted its IPO filing and successfully raised $520 million in November, reaching a market capitalization of $5.9 billion. Continuing its international growth trajectory, Braze acquired North Star in 2023 to launch Braze Australia and introduced Sage AI by Braze, a sophisticated GPT-driven marketing solution. In 2024, the company announced plans to expand globally with new offices opening in Brazil, Bucharest, Dubai, and Seoul.

Activities

Braze provides customer engagement solutions to leading brands such as MAX, Skyscanner, PureGym, Burger King, Babylon Health, Grubhub, NASCAR, OkCupid, TUI, and the NBA. These collaborations underscore Braze’s commitment to advancing personalized marketing strategies and boosting customer loyalty across various sectors including streaming media, travel, fitness, food delivery, healthcare, sports, and entertainment.