Hightouch
Hightouch, founded in 2018 by Tejas Manohar, Kashish Gupta, and Josh Curl, emerged from frustration with legacy customer data platforms.
Profile
Composable CDP with AI agents for real-time, one-to-one marketing activation directly from your data warehouse.
Hightouch, founded in 2018 by Tejas Manohar, Kashish Gupta, and Josh Curl, emerged from frustration with legacy customer data platforms. Manohar, an early engineer at Segment (acquired by Twilio for $3.2 billion), saw that traditional CDPs were too slow and disconnected from the data warehouses companies actually use for analytics. The three co-founders pivoted to build a reverse ETL platform that syncs warehouse-native customer data directly to marketing and sales tools—and later evolved into an agentic marketing platform.
Today, Hightouch operates as a composable CDP with integrated AI decisioning capabilities. The company's core innovation is connecting directly to clients' data warehouses (Snowflake, BigQuery, Databricks) and applying AI agents to automate one-to-one marketing decisions in real time. Rather than relying on generic foundation models, Hightouch's AI learns from each customer's brand guidelines, creative assets, and audience data—preventing the kind of hallucinations that plague generic LLMs. The platform spans audience building, content generation, campaign orchestration, and cross-channel activation.
Hightouch has grown explosively. Founded with a dozen employees five years ago, the company now employs 400+ across San Francisco, New York, Austin, London, and Southeast Asia. Revenue reached $100 million in ARR as of April 2026, with 25% of revenue from European markets. The company is moving to a larger San Francisco office, a rare bet in an industry plagued by layoffs.
The funding trajectory reflects this momentum. In February 2025, Hightouch raised an $80 million Series C at $1.2 billion valuation, led by Sapphire Ventures. By April 2026, the company secured $150 million in Series D at $2.75 billion, with Goldman Sachs and Bain Capital Ventures leading. Total funding now exceeds $322 million.
Hightouch's customer base spans retail, financial services, media, and B2B SaaS. Named customers include Spotify, DoorDash, Domino's, PetSmart, Warner Music Group, Grammarly, Chime, and WHOOP. The company acquired HeadsUp in late 2023 to accelerate AI-powered customer profiling. Key strategic moves in 2025–2026 include the launch of Ad Studio (AI-generated advertising at scale), Adaptive Identity Resolution, and a reframing from "reverse ETL" to "agentic marketing platform."
Who buys this
- Enterprise retail and e-commerce (loyalty, personalization at scale)
- Fintech and financial services (account-based marketing, compliance-aware activation)
- Media and entertainment (audience monetization, direct-to-fan campaigns)
- B2B SaaS (account-based marketing, sales enablement)
- Quick-service restaurants and consumer goods (targeted promotions, multi-channel orchestration)
Publicly disclosed clients
- Spotify
- DoorDash
- PetSmart
- Domino's
- Warner Music Group
- Grammarly
- Chime
- WHOOP
Strengths and what to watch
Strengths
- Warehouse-native architecture eliminates data replication latency and reduces engineering overhead compared to traditional CDPs.
- AI agents that stay on-brand: directly integrates with Figma, brand guidelines, and content libraries to prevent generic LLM hallucinations.
- Rapid revenue growth: $70M ARR added in 20 months after AI launch (late 2024), reaching $100M by April 2026 with 100%+ YoY growth.
Watch for
- Customer concentration risk: Spotify and DoorDash represent material revenue share; churn from either would impact trajectory.
- Organizational scaling challenge: flat structure with limited career advancement paths flagged in Glassdoor reviews; headcount tripled in 18 months (264 → 437) while maintaining 4.6/5 star rating but with noted friction on promotion clarity.
- Competitive intensity from Census (40x faster data syncing claims) and traditional CDPs adding AI; Hightouch's moat depends on warehouse-native architecture and AI brand fidelity staying ahead of entrants.
Recent moves
- 4w ago SF Standard profiles Hightouch as rare SaaS growth story amid layoffs; co-CEO Kashish Gupta argues SaaS survives only if centered on true AI solutions, not traditional platforms.
- 6w ago Hightouch raises $150M Series D at $2.75B valuation led by Goldman Sachs and Bain Capital Ventures; plans to expand agentic marketing platform across AI-driven campaign orchestration and cross-channel execution.
- 8w ago Hightouch reaches $100M ARR, adding $70M in just 20 months after late-2024 AI product launch; marketing teams now autonomously create personalized campaigns without design teams.
- 4mo ago Hightouch named a Leader in the 2025 Gartner Magic Quadrant for CDPs, first time inclusion; positioned highest in Ability to Execute.
- 11mo ago Snowflake Ventures and Capital One Ventures invest in Hightouch, extending oversubscribed Series C to fund AI agents for marketers.
Key Information
- Industry
- Reverse ETL / Activation
- Founded
- 2018
- Employees
- 201-500
- Headquarters
- San Francisco, CA
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Hightouch?
Hightouch is a composable customer data platform that syncs data warehouse data to marketing and sales tools in real time. Founded in 2018, it enables one-to-one marketing activation directly from Snowflake, BigQuery, or Databricks using AI agents that learn from brand guidelines and audience data.
How does Hightouch differ from traditional CDPs?
Hightouch is warehouse-native, eliminating data replication delays that plague traditional CDPs. It syncs directly from your data warehouse instead of storing data separately. The platform also integrates AI agents that stay on-brand using Figma and content libraries, preventing generic LLM hallucinations traditional platforms experience.
Which data warehouses does Hightouch integrate with?
Hightouch connects directly to Snowflake, BigQuery, and Databricks. This warehouse-native architecture eliminates the need to replicate customer data into a separate CDP, reducing latency and engineering overhead while enabling real-time activation of personalized marketing campaigns from your analytics data warehouse.
What types of campaigns can Hightouch power?
Hightouch enables audience building, content generation, campaign orchestration, and cross-channel activation. The platform's Ad Studio generates personalized advertising at scale using AI agents trained on brand guidelines. It supports retail loyalty, account-based marketing, direct-to-fan campaigns, and sales enablement across fintech, media, and SaaS.
Who uses Hightouch?
Hightouch serves enterprise customers across retail, financial services, media, entertainment, and B2B SaaS. Named customers include Spotify, DoorDash, Domino's, PetSmart, Warner Music Group, Grammarly, Chime, and WHOOP. The platform is particularly popular for loyalty programs, account-based marketing, and monetizing audience data.
How much funding has Hightouch raised?
Hightouch has raised over $322 million across multiple rounds. In February 2025, the company raised $80 million in Series C at a $1.2 billion valuation. By April 2026, Hightouch secured $150 million in Series D funding at $2.75 billion, led by Goldman Sachs and Bain Capital Ventures.
How Hightouch compares
Direct head-to-head against 3 competitors. Picked by 7wData.
Hightouch
- Positioning
- Composable CDP with AI agents for real-time, one-to-one marketing activation directly from your data warehouse.
- Customer segments
- Enterprise retail and e-commerce (loyalty, personalization at scale)
- Strengths
- Warehouse-native architecture eliminates data replication latency and reduces engineering overhead compared to traditional CDPs.
- Watch for
- Customer concentration risk: Spotify and DoorDash represent material revenue share; churn from either would impact trajectory.
- Recent moves
- Snowflake Ventures and Capital One Ventures invest in Hightouch, extending oversubscribed Series C to fund AI agents for marketers.
Fivetran Activations (Census)
- Positioning
- Warehouse-native reverse ETL folded into Fivetran's data movement platform following May 2025 acquisition.
- Customer segments
- Data and analytics engineering teams at mid-market and enterprise companies syncing warehouse data to business tools.
- Strengths
- 200-plus pre-built destination connectors with warehouse-native reverse ETL; claimed 40x faster data syncing than legacy activation tools.
- Watch for
- Post-acquisition roadmap subordinated to Fivetran's data ingestion priorities, reducing standalone CDP investment and feature velocity.
- Recent moves
- Acquired by Fivetran, May 2025; rebranded as Fivetran Activations with MAR-based consumption pricing replacing per-seat model.
Twilio Segment
- Positioning
- Packaged CDP with developer-oriented event streaming infrastructure, now housed inside Twilio's Data and Applications business unit.
- Customer segments
- Growth engineering and marketing teams at digital-native SaaS, fintech, and e-commerce companies.
- Strengths
- Developer SDK ecosystem covering web, mobile, and server-side event collection with broad pre-built integration library.
- Watch for
- June 2025 Twilio restructuring into two units raised roadmap continuity questions; prior $285M impairment charge signals sustained valuation pressure.
- Recent moves
- Twilio split into Communications and Data and Applications units in June 2025, placing Segment in a separate growth-focused division.
Rokt mParticle
- Positioning
- Mobile-first CDP merged into Rokt's commerce and ad-tech stack following January 2025 acquisition for $300 million.
- Customer segments
- Mobile app publishers, QSR chains, and media and streaming companies needing real-time event data activation.
- Strengths
- Real-time mobile event collection with strict data quality enforcement; deep install base in QSR and streaming verticals.
- Watch for
- Rokt ownership pivots product toward ad monetization, raising roadmap alignment concerns for customers without commerce or advertising use cases.
- Recent moves
- Launched Hybrid CDP on Snowflake AI Data Cloud, October 2025; Match Boost identity enrichment made available to all customers, March 2026.
Sources
- hightouch.com — Product portfolio (Composable CDP, AI Decisioning, Customer Studio), customer segments, major clients, headquarters, business model.
- hightouch.com — Named customer case studies including Warner Music Group, PetSmart, Grammarly, Chime, WHOOP, and others.
- techcrunch.com — ARR milestone ($100M as of April 2026), employee count (~380), co-CEOs (Kashish Gupta, Tejas Manohar), Series C funding details (Feb 2025, $80M, $1.2B valuation).
- www.prnewswire.com — Series C announcement date (Feb 18, 2025), funding amount ($80M), valuation ($1.2B), lead investor (Sapphire Ventures), co-investors (NVC, ICONIQ, Amplify, Bain, Y Combinator).
- hightouch.com — Series D funding details ($150M at $2.75B valuation), investor names (Goldman Sachs, Bain, Amplify, ICONIQ, Sapphire, TD7), agentic marketing platform vision, product capabilities (Ad Studio, context, content infrastructure, orchestration).
- sfstandard.com — Current headcount (400+), office locations (SF, NYC, Austin, London, Southeast Asia), office expansion (13,000 sq ft), international revenue (25% from Europe), market positioning and SaaS industry commentary.
- www.businesswire.com — Gartner Magic Quadrant 2026 Leader status (Jan 29, 2026), warehouse-native CDP positioning, highest in Ability to Execute.
- www.businesswire.com — Snowflake Ventures and Capital One Ventures investment (July 29, 2025), Series C extension.