5 things you didn’t know about Akeneo

At the moment, Akeneo is one of the best-known Product Information Management (PIM) systems on the market. The original French company works hard to get even more attention from potential customers and become a stronger brand.

In this article, we want to inform you even more about Akeneo, by providing you 5 things you didn't know.

1. In September 2019, Akeneo raised $46 million

Akeneo keeps further developing their product since their launch. And for developing, you need money. Over the years, Akeneo has raised a lot of investments. According to Wikipedia, the investments started in 2013, the same year as Akeneo was established.

2013: $395,000

2014: $2,300,000

2017: $13,000,000

2019: $46,000,000

The most recent investment has been done by investment agencies such as Alven, Partech and Salesforce Ventures.

The raised money is being used for marketing and development for further penetrating the US market. They expect that Akeneo needs more than 100 new employees to accomplish this.

2. The origin of the name Akeneo

Akeneo originates from the Greek word ‘Akene’ , the dried fruit that is spread by the dandelion: light and elegant way of spreading its seeds.

This form of distribution and collecting is an inspiration for Akeneo.

3. Julia

In 2014, Akeneo launched ‘Julia’. This mascot or character, whatever you want to call it, was introduced to introduce new people to Akeneo by this character.

Akeneo dedicated a slideshow of 52 slides and a video to introduce Julia and the problems she faced. Of course, Akeneo was the perfect solution for the problems Julia (target audience) had … ;)

Later on, Akeneo came up with Ziggy, a three-headed monster that appears everywhere in Akeneo’s expressions.

4. Former CTO of Magento on board

Yoav Kutner, the former CTO of Magento, is one of the co-founders of Akeneo. He has an advising role within Akeneo.

The good man doesn’t sit still. Besides his job at Akeneo, he is the founder of a relatively new e-commerce platform: OroCommerce.

The other founders of Akeneo are the frenchmen Frédéric de Gombert, Benoit Jacquemont and Nicolas Dupont

5. Akeneo certifications

Nowadays, Akeneo is that big that they introduced their own certification, or better say two certifications.

There is one certificate called Akeneo Implementation Specialist. With this certificate, you validate you have the knowledge to implement Akeneo PIM projects within every business case.

The price of the exam for this certificate is $350 and will take 2 hours at most.

The second certificate is Akeneo Developer. This certification is meant for developers that can adjust Akeneo PIM projects to each client’s business needs and strategy in the most efficient way. The exam is based on the latest Akeneo version + technical stack.

The price of the exam for this certificate is $350 and will take around 1.5 hours.

Want to know more about the implementation of Akeneo and the possibilities in terms of hosting? Please contact us.