Stensul Raises $16M to Revolutionize Email Creation

Stensul, a company focused on simplifying the development of marketing emails, has secured $16 million in Series B funding.

Two years after its $7 million Series A raise, founder and CEO Noah Dinkin explained the company’s origins, stemming from his prior venture, FanBridge. He emphasized that while numerous solutions address email delivery, Stensul specifically concentrates on the email design and construction phase.

Dinkin reiterated these points during a discussion about the Series B round last week. He stated that many marketing teams experience a lengthy email creation process, often spanning weeks. Stensul aims to reduce this timeframe to approximately two hours, empowering marketers to independently build emails without relying on developer assistance. The platform incorporates pre-defined brand standards and facilitates streamlined feedback and approval processes from stakeholders.

Dinkin also pointed out that while major marketing platforms offer email building tools, these features are not their primary focus.

He further explained that over half of Stensul’s personnel are engineers dedicated solely to improving email creation capabilities.

The company has recently expanded its team to over 100 employees and now serves clients such as Capital One, ASICS Digital, Greenhouse, Samsung, AppDynamics, Kroger and Clover Health. Recent additions to the platform include an integration with the Workfront work management system.

Dinkin also observed that, with other marketing avenues temporarily limited or reduced during the pandemic, email marketing has become increasingly vital, making the traditionally slow creation process even more problematic.

“There’s a growing demand for more emails – whether that means more variations, more targeted segments, or more language options,” he said. “Teams haven’t grown in size, so organizational leaders are recognizing that their existing methods are no longer efficient and are hindering their ability to compete effectively.”

USVP led the new funding round, with contributions from Capital One Ventures, Peak State Ventures, and existing investors including Javelin Venture Partners, Uncork Capital, First Round Capital and Lowercase Capital. Notable individual investors include Frederic Kerrest and Ryan Carlson of Okta, Aaron Bird (formerly of Marketo/Adobe), Avid Larizadeh Duggan, Gary Swart and Lauren Vaccarello of Talend.

Dinkin indicated that the funding will be used to bolster Stensul’s marketing, product development, engineering, and sales departments.

“Our initial vision was to provide an email creation platform to every organization that sends emails,” he said. “Essentially, that means every company globally. We’ve seen that need accelerate significantly in recent years.”