Amperity CEO Kabir Shahani has relinquished the CEO title at the fast-growing Seattle startup, a move that comes seven months after the enterprise software company achieved so-called unicorn status with a $100 million venture funding round.
In a blog post Friday, the company did not provide an explanation for Shahani’s departure. But the post noted that 2021 was a “record year” for Amperity, and that it “is focused on scaling the business to maximize its opportunity to help companies use data to serve their customers.”
Shahani is being replaced by Amperity president and COO Barry Padgett, a veteran of Concur Technologies and former chief revenue officer at Stripe. Padgett joined Amperity two years ago.
In addition, the company named Monica Pool Knox as its first chief people officer. She previously worked in executive human resources roles at Microsoft, LivePerson, Twitter and The Walt Disney Company.
Amperity is one of 16 unicorn startups in the Seattle area, privately-held companies with valuations topping $1 billion or more. The company boasts a high-profile board, including Madrona Venture Group managing director Matt McIlwain; Accolade CEO Raj Singh; Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson and singer-songwriter Ciara.
Amperity’s software lets companies conduct targeted marketing campaigns by connecting fragmented data sources about individual customer habits via emails, purchase history, mobile app usage, website traffic, physical store visits and other customer data. Its customers include Alaska Airlines, Brooks Running, Lucky Brand and BECU.
Shahani co-founded Amperity in 2016 alongside CTO Derek Slager, who continues to serve as CTO. The two entrepreneurs previously co-founded Appature, a health marketing startup which sold to IMS health in 2013.
Shahani’s departure was preceded by Amperity chief marketing officer Brian Goldfarb who left the company two months ago to join cybersecurity company Tenable.
Amperity’s backers include HighSage Ventures, Tiger Global Management, Declaration Partners, Madrona Venture Group and Madera Technology Partners.
We’ve reached out to Amperity for more on Shahani’s departure and we will update as more details emerge.
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