Endear
“Can a retail-specific CRM out-execute horizontal marketing tools (Klaviyo, Attentive) by winning the store associate as the primary user?”
Endear is a retail-first CRM and clienteling platform built for omnichannel brands. Founded in 2016 as We Are Arthur, Inc., the product was launched by Leigh Sevin and Jinesh Shah in 2019 to give store associates modern tools for personalized outreach via SMS, email and WhatsApp. In 2025 the company took a $6M Series A from growth-equity fund Channel Equity Partners (avoiding a traditional VC path), and in 2026 leaned into AI with an Opportunity Engine and Notetaker to auto-surface follow-ups. Endear does NOT offer embedded finance products — it is a marketing/CRM SaaS, so its financial stack is limited to standard SaaS operations.