Dubai-based company Journify secures $4 million funding to enhance brand advertisement effectiveness using personal customer data directly.
Journify Raises Funding, Expands in Gulf Region with AI-Powered Data Activation
Journify, a Dubai-based marketing technology startup, is experiencing rapid growth and expansion following a strategic investment round that has doubled its valuation. Founded in 2023 by Taoufik El Jamali, Omar Al Shoubaki, and Amine Chouki, Journify offers an AI-powered data activation platform that helps brands in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) leverage their first-party customer data across major advertising platforms.
The new funding, led by Shorooq Partners, Bunat Ventures, and Plug and Play, brings the total funding to at least $8 million. This investment follows a $4 million round earlier in the year. The startup reports a fivefold increase in revenue over the past six months and significant improvements in campaign performance. For instance, Jarir saw a 182% increase in return on ad spend and a 51% reduction in cost per purchase on Meta, while Baytonia experienced an 80% lift in ROAS and a 44% drop in acquisition costs on TikTok.
Journify plans to use the new capital to accelerate its AI development roadmap, scale hiring in engineering, product, and commercial roles, and expand further across Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and the wider Gulf region. The company operates dual headquarters in the UAE and the US, with technology hubs in Morocco and Jordan.
The startup gathers first-party customer data from mobile apps, websites, POS, and SaaS tools of its clients and sends it to their ad platforms without requiring them to write a single line of code. This capability has become crucial amid the demise of third-party cookies and tightening privacy regulations.
Leading brands like Jarir Bookstore, Dar Al Arkan, and Dr. Nutrition have used Journify's platform to boost their advertising returns by 50% while cutting the cost of acquiring new customers by 80%. Taoufik El Jamali, co-founder and CEO of Journify, stated that their goal was to eliminate the pain points marketers face in activating first-party data efficiently.
Since launching in March 2024, Journify has reached $1 million in annual recurring revenue within nine months. The startup aims to revolutionize the marketing industry by providing a seamless, AI-powered data activation solution that enables brands to focus on results, not technical hurdles.
- Journify, with its AI-powered data activation platform, aims to revolutionize the marketing industry in the Gulf region, particularly in finance and business sectors, by enabling brands to activate their first-party data efficiently, thereby significantly improving their advertising returns.
- Leveraging technology, Journify plans to utilize the recent funding to scale its engineering, product, and commercial roles, speed up AI development, and extend its operations in the finance, technology, and advertising industries across Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and the wider Gulf region.
