Brno-based Kontent.ai has just secured over €39 million for its AI-based approach to content management systems (CMS). The startup is now a standalone enterprise for the first time.
In the digital era, content is one of the top priorities for marketing teams. Businesses are now icnreasingly looking to how they can diversify content and want their content management systems to be more streamlined and centralised. Not only is the increase of digital content contributing to this, but also the growth of remote and hybrid teams and that now more and more companies are reaching international clients thanks to the digital transformation.
Originally started in 2015 as a business unit of bootstrapped Kentico, Kontent.ai has today become a standalone enterprise after raising over €39 million.
The Brno-based startup is on a mission to bring the power of AI into content management systems and is already powering over 2000 projects, including websites, apps and headless commerce experiences. In 2021, global giants such as Algolia, Anaplan, SonarSource, the University of Oxford, Unum Insurance and Zurich Insurance made Kontent.ai their modular content platform of choice.
On a global level, organisations of all sizes are turning to headless CMS as it allows them to centralise content management throughout the whole production process while enabling their developers to choose any technology stack for their digital experience. The market is growing so much that it is now projected to reach $1.6 billion by 2027.
Kontent.ai’s modular content platform helps organisations unify, organise and manage all business content in a cloud-based repository. What sets Kontent.ai apart is its intuitive authoring experience that allows for simultaneous, collaborative work at every phase of the content lifecycle. By using the platform, content teams can easily plan, create, and review content with streamlined workflows and approvals. The modular content platform allows editors to focus on the content they want to produce, without being held up by structural design choices on how and where that content will be displayed.
With the rise of digitalisation and new hybrid and remote work approaches, there’s never been a greater need for such a streamlined content product. Companies now, more than ever before, need to centralise their content and reproduce their digital experience at scale while their employees are working in different places and across different regionalised use cases. Increased demand for content coupled with disparate teams logically calls for more efficient processes.
Using Kontent.ai’s platform, companies are able to ensure consistent content strategies across languages and regions with no need to jump in and out of other apps to collaborate and plan in real-time, saving time and money. A godsend for content teams working internationally.
As explained by D’Arcy Heath, Head of Digital Marketing and Automation at Unum: “To be truly omni-channel, we needed a content platform that could support all our initiatives in one place – to be able to create once and publish everywhere. Kontent.ai gives us that flexibility and adaptability. Working with Kontent.ai has brought marketing and IT closer together too. It enables us to leverage combined skills to deliver a scalable, omni-channel SaaS solution, with the customer at its heart.”
It’s also beneficial for developer teams too. The platform’s modern, microservices-based architecture allows for seamless integration with other applications and technologies. Robust APIs, webhooks, and flexible content models give developers full control over the structure of their content and how it’s delivered to their websites and applications. This ensures that clean, organised content can be pulled into any experience and technology stack, saving developers time and allowing them to focus on the best way to display information. Whilst the cloud-based content platform means that there are no concerns over maintenance with no downtime or performance issues.
Alongside this funding, and the separation of Kontent.ai and Kentico, there are also some managerial changes being announced. The newly formed Kontent.ai company will be led by Bart Omlo while Kentico will be led by Dominik Pintér. The current CEO and founder of Kentico, Petr Palas will move to the role of Chairman of the Board for both companies.
Oliver Thomas at Expedition Growth Capital said: “We’ve noted the impressive number of global enterprises that are choosing Kontent.ai for their headless CMS strategy and see huge potential in financing its future as an independent company. By appealing to both content creators and developers, Bart and the team are helping global companies to efficiently scale digital experience across an ever-evolving mix of channels. With AI unlocking even more powerful workflow automation for its customers, we’re excited to see the rewards of product leadership in this exciting category.”
Moving forward with the capital boost, Kontent.ai wants to continue to push the boundaries of content management. It’ll enable the company to expand its global footprint in marketing and sales as well as bring the choice and governance of composable AI to its modular content platform.
Kontent.ai’s CEO Bart Omlo said: “With this investment into Kontent.ai, now as its own company, we’re excited to expand our global footprint helping enterprise teams scale their content operations, make the most of machine learning and AI, and deliver exceptional digital experiences. With Kontent.ai’s modular content platform, we push the boundaries of content management to give our customers the competitive edge.”
Today, Kontent.ai employs over 120 employees across five offices on four different continents. As a new independent company, it is ready to hire 100 employees in the next 12 months.
