Retain.ai
Retain.ai was a San Francisco-based B2B SaaS company (founded 2017) that built the Customer Insights Engine, a data-driven analytics platform helping companies improve customer retention and revenue across lifecycle stages, before being absorbed by Dagster Labs in January 2024.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2017
- HeadquartersSan Francisco, United States
- Headcount1–10
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Retain.ai does
Retain.ai was a San Francisco-based B2B SaaS company founded in 2017 that built a single product, the Customer Insights Engine (CIE). The CIE was a data-driven analytics platform designed to help companies improve customer retention and revenue by analyzing customer data across lifecycle stages, surfacing at-risk accounts, growth opportunities, and best-practice behaviors among customer-facing teams. The product's positioning was workflow-embedded: it sat inside customer teams' existing workflows to identify and share habits that drove revenue and retention outcomes.
The company's go-to-market was oriented around enterprise B2B sales, targeting companies seeking to reduce churn and improve retention through predictive analytics. Its revenue model was a SaaS subscription delivering customer retention insights and analytics as a service; pricing was not publicly disclosed. The underlying technical asset was the proprietary Customer Insights Engine, framed as a domain-specialized analytics layer across customer lifecycle stages. Retain.ai operated with a small team (1–10 employees) and was venture-backed.
Retain.ai raised approximately $27.6 million in cumulative venture funding, including a $23 million Series A in August 2021 led by Emergence Capital with participation from existing investors (Afore Capital, Baseline Ventures, Upside Partnership) and an earlier $4.6 million round in April 2019 led by Baseline Ventures. In January 2024, Retain.ai was absorbed by Dagster Labs (Elementl, Inc.) in a transaction structured around key team members — including cofounder and CEO Eric Chernoff and other technical leadership — joining Dagster Labs to build out its data orchestration capabilities. Following this transaction, Retain.ai ceased operating as an independent entity.
Retain.ai firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Retain.ai
- Website
- https://retain.ai
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2017
- Operating status
- Acquired
- Headcount range
- 1–10 employees
- Short description
- Retain.ai was a San Francisco-based B2B SaaS company (founded 2017) that built the Customer Insights Engine, a data-driven analytics platform helping companies improve customer retention and revenue across lifecycle stages, before being absorbed by Dagster Labs in January 2024.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Retain.ai industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Customer Success / Customer Retention Analytics Software
- NAICS
- Software Publishers (5132)
- SIC
- Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Loyalty, Rewards & Retention Platforms (BPAFAFAH)
- akta.pro secondary industry
- Customer Retention, Win-Back & Churn Reduction Programs (MPAAAIAH)
Keywords
Where Retain.ai is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- San Francisco
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices1 record
Markets served
Retain.ai business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations
Revenue model
- SaaS Subscription - Customer Insights Platform: Subscription-based revenue model providing customer retention insights and analytics as a service to B2B companies.
Go-to-market motion1 record
Retain.ai product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Retain.ai built and sold the Customer Insights Engine (CIE), a SaaS platform that delivered data-driven insights across customer lifecycle stages to help B2B companies reduce churn, improve retention, and grow revenue by proactively identifying at-risk customers and expansion opportunities. The offering was sold as a subscription to enterprise and mid-market businesses, primarily serving customer success and revenue teams.
Product overview
Retain.ai is a single-product company offering the Customer Insights Engine (CIE), which provides data-driven insights to help companies improve customer retention and revenue through analysis across customer lifecycle stages. As of January 2024, the Retain.ai team, including cofounder and CEO Eric Chernoff, joined Dagster Labs.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- Customer Insights Engine (CIE)
Companies that use Retain.ai
Customer profileSegments1 record
Ideal customer profiles1 record
Retain.ai technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Feature1 record
Retain.ai partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
One partnership is on record.
- Dagster LabscoreRetain.ai team members, including cofounder and CEO Eric Chernoff, joined Dagster Labs to help build out Dagster's data orchestration capabilities. This acquisition brought key talent from Retain.ai into the Dagster organization to accelerate innovation on Dagster's data orchestration platform.
Scale indicators1 record
Recent moves4 records
Expansion highlights2 records
Retain.ai competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- ChurnZero: Subscription customer success software focused on reducing churn and expanding revenue through real-time customer signals and playbooks — directly comparable in use case and ICP to Retain.ai.
- Vitally: Modern customer success platform built for B2B SaaS, offering customer health, retention workflows, and analytics — overlaps closely with Retain.ai's CIE value proposition.
- ClientSuccess: Customer success management software focused on retention, churn prevention, and lifecycle analytics for B2B subscription businesses — directly comparable to Retain.ai.
- Totango: Customer success platform offering health scores, journey orchestration, and retention analytics for B2B SaaS, competing head-on with Retain.ai for the same buyer and budget.
- Planhat: Customer success platform for B2B SaaS combining customer data, health scoring, and renewal workflows — comparable in offering and target customer to Retain.ai.
- Gainsight: The category-leading customer success platform serving B2B SaaS companies with retention, churn prediction, and customer health scoring — the most direct competitor to Retain.ai's Customer Insights Engine.
- Catalyst (by CustomerSuccess): Customer success software for SaaS and subscription businesses delivering health scoring, retention alerts, and lifecycle insights — a direct functional peer to Retain.ai's CIE.
Broad incumbents
- Mixpanel: Product analytics platform with retention and cohort analysis capabilities that competes for the same 'data-driven customer insights' budget Retain.ai targets, though at a broader product analytics level.
- Amplitude: Product analytics platform with strong retention and behavioral cohort features, representing an incumbent alternative for buyers evaluating Retain's lifecycle analytics capabilities.
Emerging players
- Heap (by Contentsquare): Digital and product analytics platform with autocapture and retention analysis, offering partial overlap with Retain.ai's lifecycle insight functionality, particularly post-Contentsquare integration.
Market position
Strengths3 records
Weaknesses4 records
Competitive moat2 records
Key risks5 records
Key highlights5 records
Customer concentration
Retain.ai social profiles
Digital presenceRetain.ai financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Retain.ai leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles2 records
Retain.ai funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds3 records
Investors5 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Retain.ai M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Retain.ai
What does Retain.ai do?
Retain.ai built and sold the Customer Insights Engine (CIE), a SaaS platform that delivered data-driven insights across customer lifecycle stages to help B2B companies reduce churn, improve retention, and grow revenue by proactively identifying at-risk customers and expansion opportunities. The offering was sold as a subscription to enterprise and mid-market businesses, primarily serving customer success and revenue teams.
Is Retain.ai a public or private company?
Retain.ai is a private company. It is classified as corporate owned and is currently acquired.
When was Retain.ai founded?
Retain.ai was founded in 2017. It employs 1 to 10 people.
Where is Retain.ai based?
Retain.ai is headquartered in San Francisco, United States, in the North America region.
How does Retain.ai make money?
One revenue line is on record: saaS Subscription - Customer Insights Platform.
Who are Retain.ai's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are ChurnZero, Vitally, ClientSuccess, Totango, Planhat, Gainsight and Catalyst (by CustomerSuccess). Broad incumbents are Mixpanel and Amplitude. Heap (by Contentsquare) is listed as an emerging player.
Does Retain.ai have an API?
No public API is recorded for Retain.ai.
What industry is Retain.ai in?
Retain.ai's product category is Customer Success / Customer Retention Analytics Software. Its primary akta.pro industry code is BPAFAFAH, Loyalty, Rewards & Retention Platforms, with a secondary code of MPAAAIAH, Customer Retention, Win-Back & Churn Reduction Programs. Its NAICS code is 5132 and its SIC code is 7372.