New York’s Insight Partners has made a “strategic secondary investment” in 2X, a subscription-based marketing-as-a-service (MaaS) company, the Malvern, Pa.-headquartered firm has said. 2X was initially funded by Recognize, also of New York, two years ago.
“2X first landed on our radar through their work with Insight’s portfolio companies,” said Jeff Horing, co-founder and managing director at Insight Partners. “We were impressed with their innovative business model and strong product-market fit in solving critical go-to-market challenges for B2B organizations.”
Insight Partners’ principal Richard Matus called 2X a “market leader in the subscription tech-enabled services market,” adding that the company addresses a “critical inefficiency in how marketing teams operate, creating a great opportunity to transform the B2B go-to-market landscape.”
‘MaaS Validation’
Founded in 2017 by a trio of former B2B chief marketing officers, 2X is led by Domenic Colasante, a former marketing executive at German software company SAP and WGroup, a Wavestone company. The company has over 150 customers, including SAP, Ricoh, Docker, Hyland, Seismic, Qlik and GoTo. In addition to its U.S. operations, the company has delivery operations in Kuala Lumpur and Manila.
“This investment is validation that our marketing-as-a-service model is the solution to the challenges B2B go-to-market leaders face,” said Colasante. “As B2B growth targets become more ambitious while budgets tighten, our solution enables leaders to accomplish more with less— greater impact, reduced costs, and complete flexibility.”
2X, citing market analysis, says B2B marketing outsourcing, including internal labor, agency services, and technology services, is a market in excess of $100 billion, and expanding at more than 20% annually.
“At Recognize, we believe the next generation of service companies is emerging, and 2X is a prime example of that evolution,” said David Wasserman, managing partner at New York-based Recognize. “Since our initial investment less than two years ago, we’ve enjoyed working with the talented 2X team. We believe the addition of Insight Partners will accelerate Dom’s vision of building the preeminent B2B marketing-as-a-service firm.”
Wiz Deal Brings Smile
Founded in 1995 by the duo of managing partner Jeff Horing and Jerry Murdock, who has since retired, Insight Partners has focused on technology startups with high growth potential. Its big hits include Wiz, which this week agreed to be acquired by Google parent Alphabet for $32 billion, Fanatics and Shopify. The firm also makes private equity investments.
Earlier this year, Insight Partners raised $12.5 billion for its 13th fund, Opportunities Fund II, according to Crunchbase data. Its flagship funds typically invest between $5 million and $500 million-plus in companies. Last year, it reportedly made 63 investments, including one in Databricks at a valuation of $62 billion, “the largest venture capital raise of 2024 and one of the largest on record.”
As of September 2024, Insight Partners had over $90 billion in assets under management. The firm has invested in more than 800 companies worldwide, with over 55 going on to complete an initial public offering.
