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Akeneo

Genre	Product information management
Founded	2013
Founders	Frédéric de Gombert, Benoit Jacquemont, Nicolas Dupont and Yoav Kutner
Headquarters	Nantes, France
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Frédéric de Gombert, CEO
Number of employees	400+
Website	akeneo.com

Akeneo is a technology company that develops product information management (PIM) and product data intelligence software to improve customer experience. The company was founded in 2013 by Frédéric de Gombert, Benoit Jacquemont, Nicolas Dupont and Yoav Kutner. Akeneo is headquartered in Nantes, France and has offices in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, Italy, Israel and Australia with more than 400 employees. It has worked with customers including Shop.com, Fossil, Midland Scientific, Air Liquide, Rexel, Babolat, LVMH and Auchan.

History

Before founding Akeneo, Frédéric de Gombert, Benoit Jacquemont and Nicolas Dupont had worked together at the open source company, Smile. They began developing a single product database to compete with Excel and brought Yoav Kutner onboard in founding Akeneo. The name comes from the Greek word akene, like the achenes' fruits that contains all the fruits' information and spread them along the winds. The company started producing a system for managing product information for use across distribution channels. Available under the open source license 3.0, the first public beta of Akeneo PIM was released in September 2013.

In January 2016, the company's chief executive officer, Frédéric de Gombert, received the prize Young Entrepreneur Prize in Digital from the French newspaper, La Tribune. Akeneo was a co-founder and partner of the Open Source School created by Smile and the École privée des sciences informatiques. The company also opened offices in Düsseldorf, Germany and Boston, Massachusetts during early 2016.

The Deloitte Technology Fast 500 named Akeneo on its EMEA list for 2017. Akeneo expanded into Israel after acquiring Sigmento, product data automation startup company. The acquisition worked to merge Sigmento's technology with Akeneo's products for data enrichment automation. The company also opened offices in Spain, Poland and the United Kingdom during early 2018. By late 2018, Akeneo had partnered with Magento to integrate its PIM software with the e-commerce system.

In March 2019, the company expanded into Italy and later announced that it would be opening an office in Australia in 2020. Akeneo was recognized as a leader in product information management applications on an IDC Marketscape report in late 2019.

In September 2023, it was announced Akeneo had acquired the Paris-headquartered AI data collection, cleansing, categorisation and enrichment platform, Unifai.

Funding

Before beginning official funding, KIMA Venture and Nestadio Capital contributed €350,000 to the company in 2013. In September 2014, Akeneo received initial funding of $2.3 million led by Alven Capital. The company raised a Series B funding round of $13 million led by Partech Ventures in March 2017. Salesforce Ventures made a strategic investment in the company as it continued to expand in North America. It completed a $46 million Series C funding round in September 2019 led by Summit Partners.

Finally, a last $135 million Serie D funding was completed in March 2022, always led by Summit Partners.

Products

Akeneo's products include two versions of its open-source PIM software: a free community edition (CE) as well as an enterprise software as a service (SaaS) edition (EE). More than 70,000 companies use the free community edition (CE) version. Akeneo PIM open source software is built under license OSL 3.0 and written in PHP. In addition, the company launched additional modules for onboarding product information from suppliers, the Akeneo Onboarder, content syndication and AI-based curation of product content capabilities.

In February 2020, the company released PIM 4.0 that included features such an asset manager, data quality insights, product attribute mapping and connection management by using API-based integration. Akeneo PIM is featured in the leader quadrant on the G2 PIM vendor grid.

Versions

Note that the names of CE releases are based on Bugs Bunny episodes, and EE releases on vegetals that have akenes.

References

1. ^ Maffei, Lucia (12 September 2020). "European software firm Akeneo to grow Boston headcount with $46M round". Boston Business Journal.
2. ^ Marius, Stéphanie (6 February 2020). "La plateforme de gestion de l'expérience produit Akeneo lance sa nouvelle version". Ecommerce (in French).
3. Stoler, Tofi (18 January 2018). "France's Akeneo Acquires Israel-based E-Commerce Data Automation Startup Sigmento". Calcalist.
4. Sermondadaz, Sarah (21 September 2015). "Les 100 du digital retail : Akeneo, solution open-source de diffusion des catalogues produits". L'Usine Digitale (in French).
5. ^ Dillet, Romain (12 September 2019). "Akeneo raises $46 million for its product information management service". TechCrunch.
6. Bercault, Florian (6 November 2019). "Akeneo, Le Pari Réussi De L'Open Source". Forbes (in French).
7. Lafond, Maëlle (28 September 2017). "Akeneo, cette startup française qui compte bien détrôner Excel". Maddyness (in French).
8. "Choosing a Good PIM Solution Based on Six Key Features". IT Consultis. Retrieved 2016-02-05.
9. "Il était une fois un PIM !". Buy The Way (in French). Retrieved 2016-02-05.
10. "PIM systems: the ultimate strategic tool to make the most out of your digital business [5 Reading tips]". Handelskraft – The E-Commerce and Online Marketing Blog - PIM systems: the ultimate strategic tool to make the most out of your digital business (in German). 2016-02-02. Retrieved 2016-02-02.
11. "PLTJE 2016 : Nantes et sa région ont choisi leurs lauréats". La Tribune (in French). Retrieved 2016-02-02.
12. "Open Source School : la première école spécialisée dans l'informatique open source". Programmez!. Retrieved 2016-02-02.
13. "Tobias Schlotter wechselt zu Akeneo - Akeneo - Pressemitteilung". www.pressebox.de (in German). Retrieved 2016-02-15.
14. "Technology Fast 500 EMEA Winners" (PDF). Deloitte. 2017.
15. Stoler, Tofi (18 January 2018). "France's Akeneo Acquires Israel-based E-Commerce Data Automation Startup Sigmento". Calcalist.
16. "Akeneo devient Magento Premier Technology Partner". Ecommerce (in French). 17 October 2018.
17. Maffei, Lucia (17 December 2019). "Speech analytics company raises 'biggest round yet' from Goldman Sachs". Boston Business Journal.
18. "Akeneo Named a Leader in IDC MarketScape on PIM". PR Newswire. 16 December 2019.
19. Clark, Terry (2023-09-21). "Akeneo Acquires AI Platform Unifai, Creating World's First Intelligent Product Cloud - 365 RETAIL | The Latest Retail News". Retrieved 2023-09-21.
20. "Les 100 du digital retail : Akeneo, solution open-source de diffusion des catalogues produits" (in French).
21. "Akeneo : le PIM open source lève 1,8 million d'euros" (in French).
22. "Akeneo grabs $13 million for its CRM of products".
23. Akeneo. "Product Information Management Provider Akeneo Secures Strategic Funding Amid Growing U.S. Expansion". www.prnewswire.com. Retrieved 2019-03-04.
24. "European software firm Akeneo to grow Boston headcount with $46M round".
25. "Akeneo Announces $135 Million Series D to Redefine Product Information Management Category".
26. "Agence Dn'D - Premier partenaire Gold d'Akeneo PIM | Agence DnD". Agence Dn'D. Retrieved 2016-02-02.
27. "StrikeTru Announces Market America". PRWeb. Retrieved 2016-01-05.
28. Driscoll, Taylor (11 February 2020). "Akeneo rolls out newest version of PIM software". TechTarget.
29. "Akeneo PIM 4.0 Delivers New Product Experience Management Platform". MarTech Series. 11 February 2020.

External links

• Official website

• Free content management systems
• Software companies of France
• Software using the Open Software License