Marketing automation provider Act-on, an early player in the SaaS Martech space, was acquired by Banzai on Thursday.
Banzai is paying $53.2 million for ACT-On, with $20 million in cash and the rest in stock and warrants.
Banzai became a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) in December 2023 and offers a collection of marketing tools, including Carate, which uses AI to create newsletters, webinar platform Demio and Reach , which deploys multi-channel outbound campaigns.
Act-on was founded in 2008, a year after Marketo and two years after Pardot. While Marketo and Pardot have been acquired by enterprise sellers – Adobe bought Marketo in 2008 and Salesforce bought Pardot in 2013 – ACT-On has focused on providing sophisticated capabilities and offerings in marketing automation to average customers at an affordable price.
But the company is far from alone when it comes to providing these services to small and medium-sized businesses. Constant Contact, Aweber, Brevo (formerly SendinBlue), and Induit’s MailChimp, among others, all play in the same market.
Both companies are rooted in the Pacific Northwest. Act-on was founded in Portland, Oregon, while Banzai calls Bainbridge Island, Washington, his home.
Well-known active customers include Best Buy, Hitachi and AutoZone. Most of Act-On’s employees will join Banzai. The company’s CEO, Kate Johnson, will leave once the deal is finalized.
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