CANDDi's Smart Website Visitor Analysis Tech Raises $600,000

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Martin SFP Bryant

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Martin Bryant is founder of Big Revolution, where he helps tech companies refine their proposition and positioning, and develops high-qualit (show all) Martin Bryant is founder of Big Revolution, where he helps tech companies refine their proposition and positioning, and develops high-quality, compelling content for them. He previously served in several roles at TNW, including Editor-in-Chief. He left the company in April 2016 for pastures new.

CANDDi, a startup that analyses website traffic to help turn visitors into customers, has today announced a £370,000 ($598,000 USD) funding round with a view to pushing its product to a wider audience.

UK-based CANDDi’s technology can spot trends in website user behavior and use them to help businesses close a sale. It answers three questions about visitors: ‘Who are they?’, ‘What do they want?’ and ‘How much do they want it?’ For example, CEO Tim Langley says that users who visit the ‘About Us’ page as part of their journey through a site tend to be likely to spend more if they end up buying. Using this data, CANDDi can automatically tweak factors such as the user journey and the kinds of messages visitors receive from the website in order to help close a sale.

The new funding round is led by Northstar Ventures, which has put in £250,000 mixed debt and equity investment. The remaining £100,000 comes from a bevy of angels including former TravelSupermarket.com and UK & Europe Travel MD at Kelkoo, Chris Nixon, and Clement Schvartz, EMEA Large Customer Sales Director at Google.

CANDDi first emerged as part of the Difference Engine accelerator in the North East of England and, backed by an initial £150,000 investment from Northstar, established bases in both Newcastle and Manchester while it developed its technology from proof-of-concept to a sellable product.

The startup currently targets the websites of companies who tend to advertise online but close their deals offline, such as real estate agents, car dealers and B2B services. Langley says that until now, customers have been acquired through the team’s own contacts, but that the new funds will allow them to boost sales and marketing efforts. To this end, CANDDi has already hired an ex-Googler, Fred Abrard, as sales manager.