Table of Contents
- Hightouch founders and financing at a glance
- Who is Tejas Manohar?
- Who is Joshua Curl?
- Who is Kashish Gupta?
- Why the founders built Hightouch
- What Hightouch does
- What makes the founder thesis distinctive?
- Hightouch financing and transaction history
- What the latest milestone was intended to change
- Founder and company timeline
- The founders' public thesis
- Strengths, risks and unresolved questions
- Evidence to watch over the next 12 to 18 months
- Frequently asked questions
Tejas Manohar, Joshua Curl and Kashish Gupta founded Hightouch, the composable cdp, data activation and agentic marketing platform business now serving marketing, data, growth, advertising and revenue teams. Tejas Manohar is Co-founder and co-CEO; Joshua Curl is Co-founder; Kashish Gupta is Co-founder and co-CEO.
The latest material financing milestone covered here is $150M Series D at a $2.75B valuation, dated 2026-04-29. The relevant total is about $322M reported, labelled as latest round and valuation are company-confirmed; total combines publicly announced rounds. It is company-level capital or transaction value—not founder net worth.
Authentic Hightouch website evidence captured on 21 July 2026.
Hightouch founders and financing at a glance
| Field | Verified information |
|---|---|
| Founding team | Tejas Manohar, Joshua Curl and Kashish Gupta |
| Current or documented roles | Tejas Manohar: Co-founder and co-CEO; Joshua Curl: Co-founder; Kashish Gupta: Co-founder and co-CEO |
| Company | Hightouch — hightouch.com |
| Founded | 2019 |
| Headquarters or operating scope | San Francisco, California, United States |
| Product category | Composable CDP, data activation and agentic marketing platform |
| Primary customer | Marketing, data, growth, advertising and revenue teams |
| Latest financing milestone | $150M Series D at a $2.75B valuation, 2026-04-29 |
| Total or transaction value | about $322M reported — latest round and valuation are company-confirmed; total combines publicly announced rounds |
| Public status | Privately held or part of an acquirer |
| Last verified | 21 July 2026 |
Who is Tejas Manohar?
Tejas Manohar is Co-founder and co-CEO at Hightouch. Tejas Manohar's role should be read in its current context: founder status is permanent, while executive responsibility can change as a company scales, lists publicly or is acquired.
Founder profile: Connect with Tejas Manohar on LinkedIn.
Hightouch founders Tejas Manohar, Joshua Curl and Kashish Gupta, left to right, in official company photography.
In the founding team, Tejas Manohar contributed to the combination of product judgment, technical execution and go-to-market work behind Hightouch. The public evidence does not justify claims about private ownership, personal wealth or undisclosed internal responsibilities.
Who is Joshua Curl?
Joshua Curl is Co-founder at Hightouch. Joshua Curl's role should be read in its current context: founder status is permanent, while executive responsibility can change as a company scales, lists publicly or is acquired.
Founder profile: Connect with Joshua Curl on LinkedIn.
Hightouch founders Tejas Manohar, Joshua Curl and Kashish Gupta, left to right, in official company photography.
In the founding team, Joshua Curl contributed to the combination of product judgment, technical execution and go-to-market work behind Hightouch. The public evidence does not justify claims about private ownership, personal wealth or undisclosed internal responsibilities.
Who is Kashish Gupta?
Kashish Gupta is Co-founder and co-CEO at Hightouch. Kashish Gupta's role should be read in its current context: founder status is permanent, while executive responsibility can change as a company scales, lists publicly or is acquired.
Founder profile: Connect with Kashish Gupta on LinkedIn.
Hightouch founders Tejas Manohar, Joshua Curl and Kashish Gupta, left to right, in official company photography.
In the founding team, Kashish Gupta contributed to the combination of product judgment, technical execution and go-to-market work behind Hightouch. The public evidence does not justify claims about private ownership, personal wealth or undisclosed internal responsibilities.
Why the founders built Hightouch
Manohar, Curl and Gupta worked on data infrastructure and saw that valuable warehouse data was difficult for business teams to activate. They helped establish the reverse-ETL category, then expanded Hightouch into a composable customer-data platform and an agentic marketing system built on governed enterprise context.
This is documented company history plus editorial assessment. It does not establish private motivations beyond what the founders and company have said publicly.
What Hightouch does
Hightouch connects warehouse and operational data to hundreds of destinations, supports audience creation and journey orchestration, and provides identity, experimentation and AI decisioning capabilities. Its newer agentic marketing platform adds content, campaign and always-on opportunity agents that can work through Hightouch interfaces or MCP-enabled assistants.
The best AI search optimization agencies comparison is useful for readers comparing the authority and visibility work that sits outside a customer-engagement platform. The guide to citation-ready content for AI search explains a related content-distribution problem.
What makes the founder thesis distinctive?
The CSV describes Hightouch as a Series C reverse-ETL company. That is outdated: Hightouch announced an $80M Series C in February 2025 and a $150M Series D in April 2026. The current product spans data activation, composable CDP, AI decisioning and marketing agents.
Our assessment is that durable differentiation must show up in customer outcomes, workflow adoption, reliable data movement and lower operating cost—not only in feature count or AI branding.
Hightouch financing and transaction history
| Announcement date | Round or instrument | Amount | Lead or named participants | Reported use | Evidence status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Seed | $2.1M reported | Y Combinator and early investors | Build the initial reverse-ETL product | Reported |
| July 2021 | Series A | $12.1M | Amplify Partners with Bain Capital Ventures and investors | Expand operational analytics and activation | Company and press-reported |
| 17 November 2021 | Series B | $40M | ICONIQ Growth and investors | Scale product and enterprise adoption | Company-confirmed |
| 19 July 2023 | Growth financing | $38M | Existing and new investors | Develop the Customer 360 toolkit | Company-confirmed |
| 18 February 2025 | Series C | $80M at $1.2B valuation | Sapphire Ventures | Scale composable CDP and AI decisioning | Company-confirmed |
| 29 April 2026 | Series D | $150M at $2.75B valuation | Goldman Sachs and Bain Capital Ventures | Build the agentic marketing platform | Company-confirmed |
| — | Current qualified figure | about $322M reported | — | — | latest round and valuation are company-confirmed; total combines publicly announced rounds |
The headline uses $150M Series D at a $2.75B valuation because it is the clearest recent milestone in the verified record. Different instruments are not silently combined: acquisition consideration, IPO proceeds, primary funding and secondary liquidity have different meanings.
What the latest milestone was intended to change
Public statements connect the milestone to some combination of product investment, AI capability, geographic expansion, hiring, acquisitions or shareholder liquidity. Those plans are attributed intentions, not proof that each outcome occurred. Evidence should include shipped capabilities, adoption, retention, unit economics and customer results after the transaction.
Founder and company timeline
| Period | Milestone |
|---|---|
| 2019 | Manohar, Curl and Gupta begin building Hightouch. |
| 2021 | The company raises Series A and Series B financing while expanding reverse ETL. |
| 2023 | Hightouch adds $38M and broadens its Customer 360 toolkit. |
| February 2025 | An $80M Series C values Hightouch at $1.2B. |
| April 2026 | A $150M Series D values the company at $2.75B and funds agentic marketing. |
The founders' public thesis
Across the available company history, the founders argue that customer data becomes valuable when operating teams can turn it into timely, coordinated action. The exact emphasis differs by company—category creation, accessibility, data ownership, real-time infrastructure or AI-assisted execution—but the test is similar: can a customer make better decisions without adding hidden complexity?
Strengths, risks and unresolved questions
Visible strengths
- A founding thesis attached to a recurring and measurable marketing workflow.
- Product history and financing evidence available from primary sources.
- A platform broad enough to influence data, orchestration and customer communication.
Material risks
- Warehouse activation can expose sensitive customer attributes unless field-level permissions and destination controls are enforced.
- Always-on agents need scoped tools, budget limits, auditable actions and human approval for consequential campaigns.
- The $2.75B figure is the Series D valuation, not revenue or founder wealth.
Questions buyers and researchers should ask
- Which founder roles are current, and which describe historical service?
- How is incremental customer or revenue impact measured against a control?
- What data, consent, model and deliverability controls constrain automated action?
- Which transaction amounts were primary capital, secondary liquidity or acquisition consideration?
- What implementation resources are required before the platform produces reliable value?
Evidence to watch over the next 12 to 18 months
Watch for independently explainable retention and expansion, transparent AI evaluation, successful migrations, product delivery tied to the announced financing purpose and current executive-role disclosures. For public companies, filings provide a stronger operating signal than promotional customer counts alone. For private companies, future financing announcements should identify transaction composition clearly.
Frequently asked questions
Who founded Hightouch?
Hightouch was founded by Tejas Manohar, Joshua Curl and Kashish Gupta.
What does Hightouch do?
Hightouch provides composable cdp, data activation and agentic marketing platform capabilities for marketing, data, growth, advertising and revenue teams.
What is Hightouch's latest financing milestone?
The latest milestone verified for this profile is $150M Series D at a $2.75B valuation, dated 2026-04-29.
How much funding has Hightouch raised?
The qualified figure used here is about $322M reported. Its status is latest round and valuation are company-confirmed; total combines publicly announced rounds; it should not be interpreted as founder wealth.
What should buyers verify?
Buyers should test data integration, consent controls, measurement, implementation effort, support, exportability and the limits placed on automated or AI-generated actions.
Tolu S.
Associate Director
Evidence-led product reviews and founder profiles for search, marketing, authority, and AI visibility teams.
