# Act-On

Act-On Software is a software-as-a-service product for marketing automation. The company is headquartered in Portland, Oregon and was founded in 2008, originally retailing its software exclusively through Cisco, which provided $2 million in funding.

## History

Act-On was founded in 2008 by Raghu Raghavan, formerly a founder of Responsys, after he saw "potential for a sophisticated, but affordable SaaS marketing tool mid-market companies could easily use." Act-On initially sold through alternate channels, but later created its own sales team. Entering the market after several competitors had been established, Act-On had a second-mover advantage, learning from the successes and failures of earlier market entrants.
In 2011, Act-On raised a third round for $10 million in June 2011 and established a new location in Silicon Valley. The company raised an additional $16 million in funding the following year.
By 2013, the number of employees had grown to 140, up from 11 in 2010 and 35 in 2011.
In April 2014, $42 million in additional funding was raised, which was the largest funding round in the Oregon technology market since the dot com bubble. Act-On now employs about 200 people across the US and UK, serving more than 4,000 customers worldwide. In 2015, Act-On expanded its executive team with a new CFO, formerly of the company Jive, a VP of demand generation, previously with ExactTarget, and a VP of cloud operations.
In 2015, Act-On announced the appointment of Andy MacMillan to the position of CEO. The former CEO and company founder Raghu Raghavan assumed the role of CTO. Prior to joining Act-On Software, Andy held several senior leadership positions at Salesforce, including Chief Operating Officer of the Products Division and Senior Vice President & General Manager of Data.com, where he helped to significantly grow customer adoption of products and services.
In early 2016, it expanded again into larger offices in Portland.
In 2018, Act-On announced its board of directors had appointed Kate Johnson as the company's new CEO to replace Andy MacMillan. The company consolidated its operations to Portland, Oregon at this time. Ms. Johnson had served as Act-On's CFO for the prior 3 years and was endorsed by Diane Fraiman, Voyager Capital Partner and Act-On board member and investor in the formal press release.
In 2019 Act-On raised a second round of funding for $4 million.
In June 2020, Act-On Software rebranded itself to fit the modern marketing tool needs, prioritizing engagement, updates on services, and product inventory.
In 2023, Act-On has reported to hit $25.8M revenue and 4k customers. The current number of employees is around 200 in 2024

## Features

Act-On is a subscription-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) product for marketing automation. Its software products are for email marketing, landing pages, social media prospecting, CRM integration, lead management, webinar management, and analytics.
Act-On has a Twitter prospector tool introduced in 2010 that automates the publishing and monitoring of content on Twitter, tracking prospective customers and measuring their activity. An Act-On Insight tool, released in June 2012, compares a company's social media marketing performance to competitors. Its Hot Prospects tool, introduced at the 2011 Dreamforce conference, creates a dashboard in Salesforce.com that scores the likelihood a prospect is ready to make a purchasing decision. A set of software tools for search engine optimization, pay-per-click advertising and other inbound tactics was introduced in May 2013 under the name Act-On Inbound. Act-On also introduced a mobile app and mobile optimization features. In July 2014, Act-On announced a set of product updates intended to improve data visualization and customize the user experience. Enhancements included a responsive email composer and expanded CRM integrations.
In March 2015, It introduced Act-On Anywhere, a Chrome application allowing users access to marketing automation data and functionalities across any web-based browser. Allowing users to embed calls-to-action in web pages and blogs from any web-based content management system, this extension along with Act-On's open APIs, supports a larger vision for an open marketing ecosystem, in which third-party applications can plug and play with Act-On – ensuring that end-users can continue to leverage their current systems and augment the use of those systems using engagement data collected within marketing automation.
In June 2015, Act-On released Data Studio, an advanced data access and analytics tool allowing users to visualize, select, configure and export Act-On data to any Business Intelligence (BI) platform. Offered as part of Act-On's enterprise package, the feature equips users with built-in wizards, filters and templates to extract and report on engagement data in real-time.
Act-On is intended for marketing departments across small, midsize and enterprise companies, serving as a lower-cost and more customer-service focused alternative to enterprise software suites.
Users can manage WebEx and GoToWebinar events within the software. It also integrates with data and analytics services, such as Google Analytics. More connectors are available for Microsoft Dynamics, WordPress, Salesforce, SugarCRM, Oktopost and others.
As part of its Open Marketing Ecosystem, the Act-On platform offers native integrations with all major CRM systems, to be vendor-agnostic without being indifferent. A separate version for agencies has an agency dashboard to centrally manage multiple client campaigns and is sold at a lower bulk price. Act-On also promotes its agency partners and third-party applications on the Act-On Partner Exchange (APEX), manages an educational resource called the Act-On Center of Excellence (ACE) and provides professional services.
In 2023, Act-On released Advanced Analytics which greatly improved reporting appearance and functionality for its users.