London-based JRNI (formerly BookingBug) is a customer engagement platform for omnichannel conversion, used by retail stores, financial institutions, and governments, with over 1,100 customers globally. Founded in 2008, JRNI has now closed a €5.4 million extension to its Series C financing led by PeakSpan Capital, with participation from Downing Ventures and Somerston Group. This builds on JRNI’s €12 million Series C financing from April 2018, bringing the company’s total funding to €21 million. The financing will allow the company to further expand globally, particularly in the US.
The funding extension follows the company’s rebranding in May from BookingBug to JRNI.
Founded in 2008, JRNI is designed to facilitate human-to-human experiences that increase conversion and revenue, customer loyalty, and lifetime value. Companies including US Bank, ANZ, John Lewis & Partners, and LEGO rely on JRNI’s AI-driven scheduling engine to deliver predictive actions across touchpoints, such as appointments, events, concierge, and queuing.
The new capital will be used to advance the company’s rapid growth as it expands in Europe and deepens its sales, marketing, development, and customer success initiatives in the US. In May, JRNI opened its US headquarters in Manchester, NH.
“JRNI’s momentum in the US has been energizing,” said John Federman, JRNI’s CEO. “As enterprises bridge the digital-to-physical divide in retail and financial services, JRNI is uniquely positioned as an extensible SaaS platform driving business in-store and in-branch through to conversion. The additional financing will enable us to quickly and successfully deliver for our customers.”
“JRNI’s incredible business growth, both globally and specifically within the US, is a testament to the company’s innovative platform that is solving a critical business problem: increasing conversions,” said Brian Mulvey, PeakSpan Capital’s partner and co-founder. “JRNI’s powerful platform allows customers to put omnichannel conversion at the heart of their business. We’re looking forward to continuing to work closely with the entire JRNI team in our next phase of growth.”
As a testament to the company’s impressive growth, JRNI has appointed Simon Copsey as its first CTO, who will oversee JRNI’s technology and product strategy and will lead the development, engineering, and product teams at the company’s London headquarters.
Copsey brings more than 30 years of software, engineering, and product experience to JRNI, including cloud computing and mobile skills. Over the course of his career, he has transformed software startups into viable, customer-focused businesses, launched the BBC’s iPlayer, developed the architecture of Sky’s interactive TV platform, and delivered multi-platform mobile apps for CNN and the NBA in the US.
“JRNI has built a remarkable reputation globally for its powerful, scalable, and extensible platform that helps retail and financial services companies quickly increase their conversions and create exceptional customer experiences,” said Copsey. “I’m extremely honored to join the talented team at JRNI, so we can further progress our product and drive even more strategic value to our customers. I’m looking forward to helping all of our customers achieve their omnichannel goals via JRNI.”
“Simon’s leadership is a critical component for us to continue rapidly delivering for our customers worldwide,” said Federman. “His deep technical expertise, combined with his track record of success, positions us exceedingly well for future innovation. I’m excited to welcome him to the team, and I’m eager to see his contributions in his new role.”
