Nosto was founded in 2011 by Juha Valvanne, Antti Pöyhönen, and Jani Luostarinen in Helsinki. They recognized that most e-commerce personalization tools at the time were built for enterprise giants with big budgets and long implementation cycles. They wanted to bring real-time personalization to mid-market merchants who didn’t have data science teams.
The platform analyzes shopper behavior in real time — what they browse, search, click, and buy — to personalize product recommendations, search results, content blocks, and pop-ups. It works across the entire site experience: homepage, category pages, product pages, cart, and post-purchase emails.
Nosto raised approximately $30 million in total funding from investors including Tekes (Finland’s innovation agency), Evli Growth Partners, and Open Ocean. The company grew steadily without the hyper-growth pressure that comes with massive venture rounds, focusing on profitability and customer retention.
The platform integrates natively with Shopify, Shopify Plus, Magento, BigCommerce, and other platforms via lightweight JavaScript tags. Implementation typically takes days rather than months, which is a major selling point versus enterprise personalization suites.
Nosto’s Commerce Experience Platform (CXP) combines personalization, merchandising, user-generated content, and A/B testing in a single dashboard. The company serves over 2,500 brands across 100+ countries including Dermalogica, Volcom, and Paul Smith. Nosto employs approximately 250 people with offices in Helsinki, Berlin, London, New York, and Los Angeles.
