Appier Acquires Japan-based Emin To Bolster AI-Powered Marketing Platforms

Emin’s offering to join Appier’s suite of AI marketing products as ‘AiDeal’, providing customers with augmented marketing and customer targeting solutions

TAIPEI, TAIWAN - Media OutReach^[1] - October 16, 2019 - Appier^[2], a leading artificial intelligence (AI) company, today announces that it has acquired Emotion Intelligence (Emin), a Tokyo-based AI solutions provider that predicts online consumer purchasing behaviour.

Appier acquires Japan-based Emin to bolster AI-powered marketing platforms

Emin's platform uses AI to identify which customers will definitely make a purchase and those who definitely will not. It focuses particularly on shoppers who are undecided but likely to purchase with an additional incentive in the form of a coupon with limited validity, encouraging a faster transaction.

As part of Appier, Emin will provide clients with a full suite of AI-powered marketing tools with which marketers can engage consumers across multiple channels and devices. Emin's expertise with e-commerce companies will further enhance Appier's platform, not only helping to drive sales within an e-commerce platform, but also supporting customer development, re-engagement, retention and overall improved life-time value.

"Shopping cart abandonment is a big problem for online retailers- if not the most challenging of all- and one that we're committed to solving. It was clear from our first meeting with Emin that its technology is a perfect solution for this," said Chih-Han Yu, CEO of Appier. "Both organizations strive to provide clients with cutting-edge AI capabilities that drive business growth, and together we will continue to deliver product excellence and make AI more powerful for and accessible to our customers in Japan and beyond."

Emin was founded in 2011 with offices in Tokyo. It has more than 800 customers including leading e-commerce platforms and brands such as Golf Digest Online, LOHACO and others.

"Appier is the best company for Emin to join to help us continue to bring our customers AI solutions that will ensure they stay competitive and maintain relevance among consumers," said Asami Ota, CEO of Emin. "It has been a wonderful journey as CEO to help Emin become an organization able to enter this kind of deal, and we look forward to joining the Appier team to strengthen the Appier offering and help customers leverage AI to build meaningful relationships with consumers."

Emin's solution- formerly known as ZenClerk- will be named 'AiDeal' as it joins the Appier product family. AiDeal will allow Appier clients to speed up customer time to purchase and help shoppers overcome hesitation and prevent cart abandonment by providing discounts and deals at the right time via the right channel.

Appier's last acquisition was of QGraph in 2018, which led to the launch of Appier's proactive customer engagement platform AIQUA. Appier provides AI-powered solutions for every step of the customer journey, and marketers are able to more clearly understand their customers' needs and preferences throughout, leading to an increase in loyalty, retention and meaningful relationships.

The deal with Emin and Appier is effective immediately. The acquisition was mostly done via cash deal. Some of Emin's key angel investors including Shogo Kawada, Co-founder of DeNA; Tomohito Ebine, EIF. Inc.; Masanori Sugiyama, Ex-CEO of Enish; and Kosuke Matsumoto, Ex-CFO of Enish; will join Appier's shareholder roster.

References

1. ^{^} Media OutReach (www.media-outreach.com)
2. ^{^} Appier (www.appier.com)