Sailthru secures $8 million for email delivery

Series A from several previous investors affirms email is still important to Web services

Email delivery platform Sailthru announced Tuesday that it has raised an $8 million Series A financing led by RRE Ventures, with participation from AOL Ventures, DFJ Gotham Ventures, Hatteras Funds, Lerer Ventures, Pilot Group, and Thrive Capital.

All previously contributed to Sailthru’s $1 million seed round, except for Hatteras Funds.

Sailthru’s platform is designed to handle the heavy workload of Web systems sending out emails for everything from welcome messages and password resets to newsletters and promotions. For a daily deals site, for example, customers expect to receive an email in their inbox at least once a day advertising the latest promotions. For an independent music retailer, a weekly newsletter showing off the latest releases might be sufficient.

Beyond just getting the emails out, Sailthru also reports back to its clients with in-depth campaign metrics. Other features include full-service customer support, APIs and more.

Smartly, Sailthru has already decided to specifically target the e-commerce, flash sales and publisher markets, all of which are burgeoning spaces with high email demands. Since launching in 2009, Sailthru has served several major brands, like AOL/Huffington Post, Betaworks, Business Insider, Fab.com, Thrillist, and Turntable.fm.

“Our goal from day one has been to help companies create a unique experience for each and every user that encourages continued engagement,” said Neil Capel, CEO of Sailthru. “As such, Sailthru’s technology helps brands build better, longer lasting relationships with users, and cultivate infinite customer lifetime value.”

Part of Sailthru’s new funding will go toward scaling the company, which includes making new hires. Already, there are some open positions listed across multiple departments: development, marketing, sales, operations and accounts.