HubSpot acquires Clearbit
Data is the life blood of contemporary business. By acquiring Clearbit, HubSpot have recognised the central role of good data in B2B marketing.
ABM is an area of weakness for HubSpot, due to gaps in their account based targeting capabilities. For a platform focused on inbound marketing, that's becoming a problem. Now they're buying a data vendor to fill the void.
Hubspot has long pitched itself as an all in one solution, covering the different marketing technology capabilities necessary for small businesses. In recent years, this has included improved integration and reporting tools for marketing ops. Last week, they supercharged their data enrichment capabilities by acquiring a dedicated data vendor, Clearbit, for an undisclosed fee. The deal has not yet closed but is expected to be finalised early next year.
Built-in data enrichment is not a new concept for HubSpot customers. The platform already has a basic account enrichment capability called HubSpot Insights, which is used to append firmographic and technographic information onto account records. There have been plenty of complaints about the accuracy and completeness of this service, which means that many HubSpot customers choose to use alternative data providers.