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PowerInbox, the consumer-focused startup that makes email interactive, has merged with its biggest competitor on the enterprise side, ActivePath.

These technologies add email applications to your inbox; instead of a boring HTML message, you’ll be able to engage directly with multimedia content. For instance, you may receive a notification from Kickstarter about a cool project. Without clicking away from your inbox, you’ll be able to watch the video and “like” the page.

In the wake of the merger, the new company (which will go by “PowerInbox”) has pulled in $10 million in funding from Atlas Ventures, Longworth Partners, Battery Ventures, Genesis, GIMV, and Correlation Ventures.

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The new company will have offices in Cambridge, MA: New York City; and Tel Aviv. The CEO will be ActivePath chief executive Jeff Kupietzky. PowerInbox founders Matt Thazhmon, Dileep Thazhmon, and Lance Jackson will focus on product development.

United, these companies are a powerful force. More than 50 email applications will serve 500,000 users, who will collectively receive 5 million emails per year.

As is to be expected with M&A, Dileep Thazhmon, the COO of the new entity, told VentureBeat that there will be a few routine layoffs on ActivePath’s team. The combined team will include just 17 people.

“Rather than using our resources to compete with each other, we are going to work together,” said Thazhmon in a phone interview with VentureBeat.

The team will be squarely focused on building out the product and pitching its technology to Fortune 500 companies. Thazhmon said the company will push its product to email marketing service providers such as Constant Contact and MailChimp.

“We see email as ripe for innovation and believe both companies are bringing complementary experience to exploit this huge opportunity. Putting the teams together just makes sense and is a great way to establish the industry standard for interactive mail,” said Scott Tobin, partner at Battery Ventures and a PowerInbox board member, in a statement on the news.

Interactive email image // Urfin, Shutterstock 

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