Velocidi

Velocidi operated as a customer data platform (CDP) before its acquisition by Kevel in June 2022. The company was originally founded in 2009 by David Dunne and Dina George Khoury in New York City. A significant milestone in its history was the 2018 acquisition of ShiftForward, a Portuguese marketing automation and data platform company. This strategic move brought in ShiftForward's founder and CEO, Paulo Cunha, who became Velocidi's Chief Product Officer and was later appointed CEO. Before this, Cunha had a background in software development and marketing technology, having worked in London before returning to his native Portugal to start his own ventures. The acquisition of ShiftForward was pivotal, establishing Velocidi as a private CDP, which allowed clients greater control and security over their first-party data.

The firm specialized in providing first-party audience solutions primarily for e-commerce marketers, including those in fashion and retail. Velocidi's business model revolved around a software platform that enabled brands and their agencies to unify fragmented customer data from various sources into a single, coherent view. This service was delivered as a plug-and-play solution, with pricing typically tiered based on the volume of unique customer profiles. The platform utilized machine learning to predict customer behaviors, such as likelihood to buy and next purchase predictions, creating precise audience segments for targeted marketing campaigns across channels like Google and Facebook. This allowed clients to optimize advertising spend, increase return on ad spend (ROAS), and reduce customer acquisition costs.

Following its acquisition by Durham-based Kevel, an API infrastructure platform, Velocidi's technology was integrated to create what is now known as Kevel Audience. The entire Velocidi team, with offices in New York and Porto, Portugal, joined Kevel to enhance its user segmentation and content personalization capabilities in a privacy-focused manner. The combined entity aims to provide brands with the tools to build their own high-margin ad platforms, enabling them to compete more effectively with major digital monopolies. The technology helps retailers and publishers activate first-party data for targeted advertising and on-site personalization without necessarily needing a separate CDP or data science team.

Keywords: Kevel Audience, customer data platform, CDP, first-party data, audience segmentation, e-commerce marketing, marketing automation, data unification, ad personalization, retail media, predictive analytics, machine learning marketing, Paulo Cunha, David Dunne, private CDP, audience activation, marketing intelligence, ad tech, martech, ShiftForward