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Banzai on Thursday acquired marketing automation provider Act-On, one of the first players in the SaaS martech space.
Banzai is paying $53.2 million for Act-On, with $20 million in cash and the rest in stock and warrants.
Banzai became a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) in December 2023 and offers a collection of marketing tools, including Curate, which uses artificial intelligence to create newsletters, webinar platform Demio, and Reach, which implements multi-channel outbound campaigns.
Act-On was founded in 2008, one year after Marketo and two years after Pardot. While Marketo and Pardot have been acquired by enterprise vendors—Adobe acquired Marketo in 2008 and Salesforce acquired Pardot in 2013—Act-On has focused on providing sophisticated yet affordable marketing automation capabilities to midmarket users at an affordable price.
But the company is not the only one when it comes to delivering these services to small and medium-sized companies. Constant Contact, AWeber, Brevo (formerly Sendinblue), and Intuit’s MailChimp, among others, all play in the same market.
Both companies are rooted in the Pacific Northwest. Act-On was founded in Portland, Ore., while Banzai calls Bainbridge Island, Wash., its home.
Notable Act-On customers include Best Buy, Hitachi and Autozone. Most Act-On employees will join Banzai. The company’s chief executive, Kate Johnson, will leave after the deal ends.
Dig deeper: Download MarTech Intelligence’s 2025 Marketing Automation Market Report (registration required)