Media Coverage
By Cromwell Schubarth - TechFlash Editor, Silicon Valley Business Journal Sep 1, 2020, 7:18am PDT. Updated Sep 1, 2020, 7:44am PDT
The founder of fast-growing data management software business Reltio Inc. is handing off the CEO job to an executive who led a $2.1 billion buyout of his last company.
Manish Sood will now be chairman and chief technology officer of the Redwood City company he founded in 2011.
Chris Hylen is the new CEO, taking the job nearly a year after he left Imperva Inc., the enterprise security business he sold to private equity firm Thoma Bravo in 2018.
Reltio's cloud software platform helps customers organize their data from multiple sources on a continuous basis and recommends actions based on artificial intelligence and machine learning. Its Connected Customer 360 product is designed to help create rich customer profiles that include relationships, omnichannel transaction and interaction data.
The company has been on the Inc. 5000 list of the nation's fastest growing companies for the past four years, showing 275% growth in the most recent ranking.
Despite the revenue growth, the company employs about 300. That's the same as it did in May 2018 when it raised its last round of funding. It has raised nearly $130 million in funding altogether and was valued at about $425 million after that 2018 round, according to PitchBook Data.
Reltio's investors include New Enterprise Associates, Sapphire Ventures, .406 Ventures and Crosslink Capital.
In addition to bringing in a new CEO, the company also has a pair of new directors: former Citrix Systems Inc. CEO Mark Templeton and Larry Lenhart, an operating partner at NewView Capital.
The moves come about eight months after Reltio also hired former Drawbridge Inc. Chief Financial Officer Matt Gallatin as CFO.
Sood said he is excited to have an experienced leader at the helm so that he can focus on innovation and spend more time with customers.
"I'm happiest when I'm working with our product, technology and user experience teams and when I'm interacting with our customers and partners," he said in the announcement of his transition. "These experiences energize me and get my creative juices flowing. I'm excited to focus my time and energy thinking about the big impact we can have on how companies operate, how they innovate, how they engage with customers and how they drive better business outcomes."
Hylen said he was attracted by Reltio's technology that helps business leaders better understand customer relationships.
"Reltio is uniquely positioned to provide real-time, customer focused data at scale," he said in the hiring announcement. "We have an opportunity to build a world-class growth company."
