Real-Time Web Tracking Firm Genius Closes on $19M

SILICON VALLEY — Genius, a provider of technology for businesses to track the behavior of customers visiting their Web sites, has raised $19 million more in financing.

Genius lets a company’s salesperson track who is visiting a page and jump in to have an instant message chat with a customer who seems close to making a purchase on the site – to either help close the purchase or answer any questions the customer might have.

Accel Partners led the round of investment for the San Mateo-based company. Also participating were previous investors Mohr Davidow Ventures, Emergence Capital and Walden International. The 4-year-old firm raised $15.1 million in earlier rounds.

Genius says it has more than 400 corporate customers, up from 100 customers a year ago. It says it just closed a major account with British Telecom.

Chief executive David Thompson told VentureBeat the company has focused on new features like e-mail campaigns. In such a campaign, a salesperson can send out e-mails with links. When a potential customer clicks on a link and comes to the site, Genius lets the salesperson watch their clicking behavior.

Management teams at some companies (BT, for example) are now using the product to monitor how well e-mail campaigns perform, how a Web site is performing and how the sales force is doing overall.

However, Genius’ move into e-mail will bring it more competition:

Competitors include Eloqua, and for e-mail, ExactTarget and Constant Contact.

The product is sold for $49 per user per month.