Kahuna Launches Customer Engagement Engine

After much anticipation, today Kahuna launches their Customer Engagement Engine, which brings adaptive engagement campaigns to the mobile experience. Customer engagement management enables companies, in particular mobile commerce businesses, to make use of the data they already collect to improve customer experience and boost vital business metrics such as revenue, engagement, and recurring active users. Mobile engagement and cross-channel marketing are essential to e-commerce and consumer-focused companies who live or die by their customer engagement.

Kahuna’s marketing engine works by both creating a dynamic behavior-based engagement profile for every customer and unifying each customer’s experience across apps, devices and platforms. Kahuna is able to customize the experience for new users and also re-engage users when they exhibit drop off signs through targeted and personalized messaging in the form of push communication and email. Similar real-time tools have proven successful in the web channel, and Kahuna is the first to integrate the mobile environment.

Delivering a unified and consistent experience, personalizing the message, and communicating with the user when and where they want to be contacted is the key to meaningful engagement — and it shows in the numbers. Success stories from early adopters like Gyft (a mobile gift-card service) show Kahuna’s impact. After the very first campaign, Gyft saw a 240% increase in engaged users, a 17% growth in revenue from cards purchased, a 12% rise in cards redeemed, and a 7% boost in sharing on social media. There is real value being generated here!

Adam and Jacob make a great team. I’ve known Adam for many years and this investment was special because Costanoa and Kahuna have shared a parallel entrepreneurial journey. Adam was leaving Bain to start Kahuna just as we closed our Fund I and had capital to invest. Backing him and Jacob was a no-brainer, and they have continued to prove me right. The Kahuna team knows how to execute and is dedicated to creating value for customers first and foremost.

Congratulations to Kahuna!