Turkey-founded and Singapore-based marketing platform Insider, has closed a $121 million Series D led by Qatar Investment Authority, making Insider the first woman-founded startup to achieve unicorn status in Turkey and the wider Middle East region. Insider is now the world’s ninth-largest Business-to-business (B2B) Software as a Startup (SaaS) unicorn.
The Series D Mega Round was led by Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) and recorded participation from Sequoia, Riverwood Capital, 212, Wamda Capital, Esas Private Equity, and Endeavor Catalyst.
“The bar for competition has been raised across the board in SaaS over the past 5 years. Insider stands out as an outlier. Hande is a truly exceptional leader and, backed by her brilliant co-founders and teams, is building a world-class software company with capabilities beyond those of many in the Valley. Theirs is a different mindset: one that breaks past boundaries and makes what seems impossible to many, a possibility.”
~ Joe De Pinho, Principal at Riverwood Capital
Insider enables marketers to connect customer data across channels, predict behaviour with AI, and individualize cross-channel experiences. Insider helps 1000+ leading enterprise brands and high-growth startups including Samsung, GAP, Santander, Vodafone, IKEA, MAC, Virgin, Toyota, Singapore Airlines, Madeira Madeira, Marks & Spencer, and Estée Lauder accelerate digital growth through cross-channel customer experiences.
The startup was founded in 2012 by Hande Cilingir, with co-founders Serhat Soyuerel (Chief Revenue Officer), Arda Koterin (Chief Customer Officer), Sinan Toktay (CTO), Okan Yedibela (VP of Engineering), and Muharrem Derinkök (Chief Product Officer).
Insider is a gender-inclusive and diversity promoting platform with 700 team members from 41 different nationalities across 28 countries worldwide. 60% of top executives in the company, including the CEO, CMO, CFO, and CHRO are women.
“We’ve been blitzscaling remarkably in the past three years and achieved 3X growth. In the same period, our global team grew by 300%, and our customer base continues to increase,”
~ Hande Cilingir, Founder and CEO of Insider
After unlocking the unicorn status, Insider has aggressive global hiring plans and anticipates creating more than 50 jobs over the next three years, with an emphasis on hiring female engineers to fill R&D and product development positions.
