What a year it has been. GDPR enforcement took effect, Amazon continued eating the world, Microsoft overtook Apple as the most valuable company in the world, Fortnite ushered in a new era in Gaming and eSports, Burger King trolled McDonald’s and earned a #1 spot in the App Store. What else? We wore our new name for a full year.

If you knew us about 13 months ago, you knew us as Appboy. Our first year as Braze has been nothing less than exciting. We’ve grown our team, we’ve worked with incredible global brands (including many of those mentioned in the paragraph above #humblebrag), we expanded our product, we launched Braze Magazine on Perspectives, and frankly, we had a lot of fun doing it all.

It’s a great time to be at Braze. We’re continuing to grow and learn, while also being recognized as a leader in our industry. Braze is an increasingly important part of the transformation story for brands looking to future-proof their business and become a category leader. If you’re not yet working with us, there’s never been a better time to do so. Momentum? We’ve got it. Here’s our top 10 Braze moments of 2018:

10. We launched our new Diversity & Inclusion initiative, Braze for ALL.

9. Braze took over the Promenade de la Croisette at the Cannes Lions Festival with the #ShiftHappens brand campaign.

8. Braze engaged in groundbreaking conversations. Bill Magnuson (Braze CEO) was featured in the ‘Talking Technology’ op-ed interview with The New York Times Chief Technology Officer, Nick Rockwell, and Myles Kleeger (Braze CCO & President) discussed the benefits of humanizing the brand-customer relationship with Hilton’s Chief Marketing Officer, Kellyn Smith Kenny, at the Forbes CMO Summit.

7. Braze opened its first Asia Pacific office in Singapore

6. The awards and accolades piled up in 2018! Braze is #85 on the Forbes Cloud 100, #225 on Inc.’s 5000 Fastest Growing Private Companies, and #17 on Crain’s Fast 50 New York List. Not to mention, Forbes included Braze in their Next Billion-Dollar Startups of 2018!

5. Braze pushed the boundaries of event production, as we explored the human side of customer relationships at our flagship annual summit, LTR2018 (LTR = “Long-Term Relationships”)! Two days. 25+ sessions. More than 50 speakers. Hundreds and hundreds of attendees. Rave reviews all around!

4. With the proliferation of best-in-class Marketing tech stacks and ecosystems, Braze launched the ‘Alloys’ Partner Marketplace to augment the already robust core capabilities of the Braze platform, and establish Braze as a genuine multi-cloud offering.

3. Gartner named Braze a Leader with the highest Ability to Execute in their first Magic Quadrant for Mobile Marketing Platforms.

2. Braze raised an $80M Series E at an $850M valuation, bringing total funding to over $170M.

1. If you’ve ever heard a Braze pitch, you’ve definitely heard our tagline: “Humanize your brand-customer relationships at scale.” Well, we took it to a new level this year when we released the Brand Humanity Index (BHI) conducted by Forrester Consulting on our behalf. Turns out our hypothesis was true all along. Customers are 2.1x more likely to form an emotional connection with brands that demonstrate humanity. How Human is Your Brand?

Here’s to an incredible 2018...and an even bigger (and more human) 2019!! 🍾