Tealium
Tealium was founded in 2008 by Mike Anderson, Ali Behnam, and Olivier Silvestre—all former WebSideStory executives—to create enterprise-grade tag management for collecting and managing digital marketing data. Under CEO Jeff Lunsford (appointed January 2013, former CEO of Limelight Networks and WebSideStory), Tealium evolved from a tag management specialist into the largest independent Customer Data Platform (CDP), pioneering the CDP category itself in 2013 and achieving unicorn status in February 2021 with a $1.2 billion valuation following $96 million Series G funding from Georgian and Silver Lake Waterman. Tealium serves 850+ global enterprise customers managing 6 billion events per day across eight data centers in the US, Europe, and Asia. The company generated approximately $248.5 million in revenue with 565-700+ employees globally across offices in 8 countries. Tealium distinguishes itself as the largest independent CDP with vendor-neutral positioning (1,300+ pre-built integrations), real-time data orchestration capabilities, machine learning-powered predictive analytics (Predict ML), and compliance-first architecture supporting GDPR, CCPA, and other global regulations. Recent innovations focus on AI-ready data solutions including Tealium for AI (launched May 2024) and new AI assistants (Tealium Genius), positioning the company to fuel enterprise AI initiatives with consented, governed data. Tealium was recognized as a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Customer Data Platforms for the second consecutive year (2024-2025) for its Ability to Execute and Completeness of Vision.
Use Cases
Enterprise Personalization at Scale: Building 360-degree customer profiles and enabling real-time personalization across web, mobile, email, and advertising channels for conversion rate optimization (20-200% improvements).
First-Party Data Strategy: Collecting, unifying, and activating first-party customer data across all touchpoints (web, mobile, offline, IoT, call centers) to prepare for cookie-less future and maintain customer insights.
AI Model Fueling: Structuring and enriching customer data at collection point to power machine learning models, generative AI applications, and LLM-based customer service.
Marketing Technology Stack Integration: Serving as the central data hub connecting 1,300+ marketing, advertising, analytics, and CRM platforms without building custom integrations.
Privacy and Compliance Management: Enforcing consent rules, GDPR/CCPA compliance, and data governance from data collection point before reaching downstream systems.
Predictive Analytics and Audience Modeling: Using Predict ML for churn prediction, propensity scoring, and customer lifetime value modeling across global customer bases.
Real-Time Customer Experience Decisions: Powering real-time decisioning engines (Pega, Amazon Connect) with live customer attributes, audience badges, and behavioral signals for in-the-moment interactions.
Travel and Hospitality CX Transformation: Supporting large travel companies (TUI) in creating unified customer data infrastructure enabling global personalization and e-commerce optimization.
Global Enterprise Expansion: Supporting multinational enterprises in managing customer data across regions, geographies, and local compliance requirements with Tealium’s sovereign infrastructure options.
Customers & Markets
Tealium serves 850+ global enterprise customers spanning diverse industries including travel, hospitality, retail, financial services, healthcare, and technology. Customer base includes Fortune 500 companies and leading brands such as TUI (tourism), Four Seasons (hospitality), Liberty Mutual (insurance), Vodafone (telecommunications), Google, Facebook, IBM, and Visa.
High-profile customers leverage Tealium for AI-powered transformations, with examples including Cathay Pacific achieving 9x more site visits, 53x uplift in conversions, and 7x higher click-through rates through real-time personalization on Tealium infrastructure. Enterprise customers in highly-regulated industries (financial services, healthcare, travel) benefit from Tealium’s compliance-first architecture and privacy-by-design approach.
Tealium’s market position as the largest independent CDP positions it to capture enterprises seeking vendor-neutral, privacy-compliant, AI-ready data infrastructure without lock-in to closed ecosystems.
Research, Partnerships & Innovations
Research Focus
Tealium prioritizes real-time data orchestration for AI and personalization, privacy and consent compliance across global regulations, machine learning and predictive analytics for customer intelligence, vendor-neutral data integration eliminating martech lock-in, and AI-ready data infrastructure powering generative AI and LLM applications.
Strategic Partnerships
AWS Strategic Collaboration Agreement (July 2024): Multi-year global SCA with Amazon Web Services to expand privacy-centric customer data innovation, leveraging AWS’ secure and scalable cloud infrastructure for Tealium’s real-time CDP and AI-driven data solutions. Partnership includes integration with Amazon Ads, Amazon Connect, Amazon Q for AI-powered contact center automation.
Technology and Integration Partnerships: Deep integrations with 1,300+ technology partners including Snowflake (cloud data warehouse), The Trade Desk (advertising), Pinterest, LinkedIn, Snap, Reddit (ad platforms), Pega (decisioning), and Salesforce Marketing Cloud (activation). MongoDB Vector Search integration for AI-powered applications.
System Integrator Partnerships: Global partnerships with major consulting and implementation firms including Credera and Ogilvy for enterprise CDP implementations, data strategy consulting, and customer experience optimization.
Cloud Data Warehouse Ecosystem: Partner program with cloud data warehouses (Snowflake) enabling seamless data flow between CDP and enterprise data platforms.
Product Innovations
Tealium for AI (May 2024): Purpose-built solution with contextual data labeling, automated standardization/transformation, and real-time AI output activation enabling enterprises to power LLMs, generative AI, and advanced analytics with governed customer data.
Tealium Genius AI Assistant (2024): AI-powered assistant helping teams understand data layers, optimize data strategies, and accelerate Tealium implementations through conversational guidance.
Tealium Predict ML: Machine learning-powered predictive analytics enabling propensity scoring, churn prediction, and lifetime value modeling at enterprise scale across 850+ customers.
Real-Time Data Infrastructure: Processing 6 billion events per day globally across eight data centers with sub-second latency for real-time customer decisions.
EventStream API Hub: Server-side data collection enabling mobile-first, privacy-first, and performance-optimized event data transmission for cloud-native enterprises.
Tealium Functions: Low-code customization engine reducing implementation complexity and enabling rapid feature development without custom engineering.
MCP Integration Capability (Q2 2025): Early adoption of Model Context Protocol for enhanced AI framework extensibility.
Key People
Co-Founders
Mike Anderson – Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer: Co-founded Tealium in 2008 alongside Ali Behnam and Olivier Silvestre. Previously worked with Jeff Lunsford and Ali Behnam at WebSideStory (SaaS web analytics pioneer acquired by Omniture and then Adobe). Continues leading technology strategy and product architecture.
Ali Behnam – Co-Founder and President: Co-founded Tealium in 2008 with Mike Anderson and Olivier Silvestre. Also worked at WebSideStory with Mike and Jeff Lunsford. Leads company vision and growth strategy as President.
Olivier Silvestre – Co-Founder: Completed founding team with Mike Anderson and Ali Behnam in 2008. Contributed to foundational product architecture and go-to-market strategy.
Current Leadership
Jeff Lunsford – Chief Executive Officer (Since January 2013): Previously served as CEO and chairman of Limelight Networks (took public with $240M IPO) and CEO of WebSideStory (web analytics pioneer later acquired by Adobe). Joined Tealium board in 2012 before becoming CEO; led company from entrepreneurial startup to unicorn status with $1.2B valuation and 850+ enterprise customers. Under Lunsford’s leadership, Tealium achieved 6+ billion daily events processing and pioneered the CDP category itself in 2013. Military background as Navy F/A-18 fighter pilot influences leadership approach.
Bob Page – Chief Product Officer: Oversees product strategy and innovation, emphasizing customer success as North Star and real-time CDP capabilities. Led recognition of Tealium’s historic Gartner Magic Quadrant CDP leadership.
Matt Gray – VP, Global Partnerships: Leads Tealium Partner Network expansion managing 1,300+ technology integrations, system integrator relationships, and cloud data warehouse partnerships.