Booshaka

Booshaka operated as a marketing automation platform with a focus on audience segmentation and management before its acquisition. Founded in 2010 by Erik Ober, the company was established to help marketers consolidate customer data from disparate sources. Ober, who served as CEO, has a background in computer science from the University of California, Berkeley, and experience as a software engineer and a two-time entrepreneur. His technical and entrepreneurial background shaped the company's direction in addressing complex data challenges for marketers.

The firm's core business involved providing a platform that automatically linked first-party customer data from social, web, mobile, e-commerce, and CRM systems. This service was designed to create detailed customer segments which could then be synchronized with Facebook and Twitter as custom audiences for targeted advertising campaigns. The platform's value proposition was its ability to unify customer data through one-click connectors with technologies like Marketo, Shopify, and Stripe, enabling clients to enhance customer engagement and revenue. Its client roster included notable companies such as Unilever, A+E Networks, and Rue La La.

Booshaka's journey included securing $3 million in venture capital over two funding rounds, which supported its growth and platform development. A significant milestone occurred in November 2015 when Sprinklr, an enterprise social technology company, acquired Booshaka. The acquisition integrated Booshaka's technology into Sprinklr's Experience Cloud, aiming to bolster its paid media and social advertising capabilities by applying real-time audience segmentation to social data. As part of the deal, the 10-person Booshaka team, including CEO Erik Ober, joined Sprinklr's San Francisco office to help expand the paid media business.

Keywords: audience segmentation, marketing automation, customer data platform, social advertising, custom audiences, ad targeting, first-party data, CRM integration, e-commerce data, Sprinklr acquisition, Erik Ober, paid media optimization, customer engagement, data synchronization, martech, audience on-boarding, social media marketing, customer experience, data analytics, Facebook advertising, Twitter advertising