DataSine, the AI-driven startup which personalises marketing for customers, has raised $5.2 million (£4 million) in Series A funding from European and US investors.

Edinburgh-based VC tech fund Pentech and San Francisco-based Propel Venture Partners led the funding round in tandem with C.Entrepreneurs/Cathay Innovation, Twin Ventures and Sistema_VC.

DataSine, which is headquartered in London, will use the money to sell its Pomegranate personalised marketing platform into the SME space for the first time. Pomegranate, which will go wide in March, can help marketers personalise everything from emails and landing pages through to call centre scripts.

Individually tailoring marketing messages to customers is set to be the next hot growth area.

Personalising marketing messages is seen as crucial, as 85 per cent of interactions between brands and customers are expected to occur online within five years.

According to Boston Consulting Group, personalisation will add some $800 billion to the bottom line of the 15 per cent of companies it thinks will get it right over the next five years. And that is just in three sectors alone: retail, health car and financial services.

Meanwhile, Technavio forecasts that the global AI-based personalisation market will grow at a CAGR of close to 13 per cent between 2018 and 2022.

Three-year-old DataSine says its software has increased customer engagement by 80 per cent for existing customers using its software. Clients include BNP Paribas, Hello Bank! and Tinkoff.

DataSine founder and CEO Igor Volzhanin said: “With this round of funding, we are now in a great position to deliver on our mission to empower companies to treat their customers like individuals.”

Marc Moens, a partner at Pentech, said: “We feel DataSine is particularly well-positioned to bring psychology and AI to address contemporary marketing challenges. The idea that digital communications can be tailored for an individual in the age of big data is very appealing and addresses the needs of the market.

“Personalised communication has long been the holy-grail for marketers,” added Rohit Bodas, partner at Propel Venture Partners.