VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA — (Marketwired) — 08/01/13 — announced today that it has secured an additional $165 million US in capital for its Series B Financing round, in order to continue meteoric growth and dominance as a social relationship platform. The latest deal, representing one of the largest rounds of global venture capital funding, is a co-investment led by , with participation from and existing investor, .
Recently celebrating its 4th birthday, HootSuite pioneered the category of social media management. Today, HootSuite has more than 7 million users in nearly every country around the world who use its secure, social relationship platform for social media management, social marketing, social customer service, and social selling.
HootSuite-s has been driven by increased demand among global organizations. Enterprise customers include PepsiCo, Virgin, Orange, Sony Music, HBO, WWF, UPS, Panasonic, and 237 of the Fortune 500 companies.
Over the last year, HootSuite has grown its staff from 180 to well over 300 located in Vancouver, Toronto, San Francisco, New York, Hong Kong, London, Sydney, and others. Building on this momentum, HootSuite will use the additional financing to continue expanding its global reach, accelerate product growth and innovation, invest in additional sales and marketing resources, and continue evaluating strategic acquisition opportunities.
“HootSuite-s goal is to empower people and brands to reach global markets using social media – to help them connect, inform, and succeed like never before,” says , CEO of HootSuite. “This capital gives us additional resources to expand quickly and strategically into new markets, innovate rapidly, and deliver on our vision around the world.”
“As demonstrated by their remarkable growth and widespread adoption, HootSuite clearly leads the market in the development and delivery of a social relationship platform,” says Jeff Lieberman, Manager Director of Insight Venture Partners. “Insight-s investment will help HootSuite capitalize on the global demand for their solutions, and accelerate the company-s pace of product innovation.”
“As the first institutional investor and largest pre-IPO owner in Facebook, we have long believed in the inevitable relevance of social networks and social media at the consumer level,” says Ryan Sweeney, Managing Partner of Accel Partners. “What-s become apparent is that social channels are also becoming THE manner in which small businesses through the Fortune 500 are opting to communicate with their customers and target markets. By every metric HootSuite-s social relationship platform is powering this evolution in corporate communications, and we are thrilled to now be their partner as they continue to scale.”
“In 2012, OMERS Ventures invested in HootSuite because we believed in the integration of social media within the enterprise,” says John Ruffolo, Chief Executive Officer of OMERS Ventures. “Since then, HootSuite has shown the market that this trend is not only important, but mission critical for any company looking to be relevant. We are committed to helping the team become the dominant player in this market.”
With this investment, Jeff Leiberman, Manager Director at Insight Venture Partners, Ryan Sweeney, Managing Partner at Accel Partners, and John Ruffolo, Chief Executive Officer of OMERS Ventures have joined HootSuite-s Board of Directors. Further financial terms of this deal have not been disclosed.
More Information:
Blog Post:
Q2 2013 Press Release:
Media Kit:
Visit HootSuite at Upcoming Events: ,
About HootSuite
HootSuite is a social relationship platform for businesses and organizations to collaboratively execute social media strategies across multiple social networks from one secure, web-based dashboard. Launch marketing campaigns, identify and grow audience, and distribute targeted messages using HootSuite-s unique social media dashboard. Streamline team workflow with scheduling and assignment tools and reach audiences with geo-targeting functionality. Invite multiple collaborators to manage social profiles securely, plus provide custom reports using the comprehensive social analytics tools for measurement. Key social network integrations include Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+ Pages, plus a suite of social content apps for YouTube, Instagram, Tumblr and more. To learn more, visit: .
About Insight Venture Partners
Insight Venture Partners is a leading global private equity and venture capital firm investing in software, eCommerce, Internet, and data-services companies. Founded in 1995, Insight has raised more than $7.6 billion and made more than 190 investments worldwide. Insight-s mission is to find, fund, and work successfully with visionary executives who are driving change in their industries. Insight provides them with practical, hands-on growth expertise to foster long-term success. For more information on Insight and all of its investments, visit .
About Accel Partners
Founded in 1983, and managing over $9.6 billion in capital, Accel Partners has a long history of partnering with outstanding entrepreneurs and management teams to build world-class businesses. Accel today invests globally using dedicated teams and market-specific strategies for local geographies, with offices in Palo Alto, California, New York City, London, and Bangalore, as well as in China via its partnership with IDG-Accel. For more information, visit:
About OMERS Ventures
OMERS Ventures is the venture capital investment arm of OMERS, one of Canada-s largest pension funds with nearly $61 billion in net assets. It is an initiative of OMERS Strategic Investments (OSI), an investment entity with a mandate to build long-term strategic relationships with like-minded partners. As both an institutional angel investor and a later-stage investor, OMERS Ventures is looking for successful companies with significant growth potential and market opportunities. We are seeking like-minded partners with a shared vision of building a vibrant and successful knowledge economy. For more information please visit .
Contacts:
HootSuite
Sandy Pell
Communications Manager
Twitter: @HootSandy
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