Sequen snags $16M to bring TikTok-style personalization tech to any consumer company | TechCrunch

Last day to exhibit your breakthrough to 10,000+ tech leaders at Disrupt is on Oct 2. Book Exhibit Table Now. Disrupt doors open Oct. 13. Get your pass and bring someone with you at 50% off. REGISTER NOW. At Etsy, Zoë Weil helped to drive a billion-dollar increase in gross merchandise volume within a single year by improving the online marketplace’s AI ranking systems. With her new startup, Sequen, she aims to bring her and her co-founders’ years of AI research and product development to other businesses in the consumer space. The company, which just closed on $16 million in Series A funding, offers real-time personalization technology and ranking infrastructure — technology used by the world’s biggest tech firms but that has been inaccessible to other large consumer businesses because of the massive datasets required. While those outside the tech industry may not understand what this technology involves, anyone who’s used consumer apps like TikTok, Instagram, or YouTube has been the target of these systems. Explains Weil, Sequen CEO, “Modern tech isn’t really recommending content anymore. It’s bending your will in subtle ways over time to make you actually want things. And, in fac