BlogFrog has announced the closing of a $3 Series 2 million Financing, led by Washington D Uh, C Grotech Ventures is based, with the participation of existing investors including David Cohen, founder of TechStars. The funding will be used to accelerate the expansion of the BlogFrog Social Activation Platform to further serve brand marketers, expand its feature set for advertising and marketing agencies, and expand the company’s network of publishers and online influencers.
BlogFrog’s technology platform enables consumer-facing brands to activate social influencers on niche topics and target demographics, create content and conversation-driven advocates, and measure performance with in-depth tracking and analytics.
“Brand marketers and agencies know that it’s not enough to advertise online,” said BlogFrog CEO and co-founder of Rustin Banks. “They need to be an authentic part of the conversation people have long before they consider buying a product. BlogFrog has developed smart social media technology that enables brands to activate thousands of digital influencers to spark and spread conversation. “That’s right.
The company first caught the industry’s attention in 2009 when it launched community tools for bloggers. The platform struck a chord with women and quickly grew to become the largest network of women and mom bloggers in the US, with more than 70,000 women and mom publishers and influencers. Bloggers use BlogFrog to increase readership and traffic, create communities where readers can interact, and increase revenue through their participation in brand programs.
Fortune 500 brands use the powerful technology and influencer platform of BlogFrog to enhance their social presence and nurture and create brand evangelists. The last year brought rapid growth for the company, with the addition of dozens of new consumer customers, tens of thousands of new influencers and the launch of several national channel partners. This round of venture funding will be used to further expand the company’s offering to market vertical brands such as food, fashion, entertainment, fitness and technology. The company also plans to double its headcount by the end of 2012 and to open an additional office in New York City to serve its growing client base.
Advertising force-feeds product awareness, while conversations create authentic brand advocates and a strong partnership between bloggers, social media content creators and products they love,” said Banks.
“Businesses today face the biggest branding challenge they’ve faced in decades,” said Lawson DeVries, general partner at Grotech Ventures. “Purchase decisions are driven less by publicity and more by peer and community sentiment. We were attracted to BlogFrog’s unique approach, which not only helps brands start these conversations with key influencers, but also enables them to engage millions by scaling the conversation across the social web. “The other investments of Grotech in social technology include LivingSocial and Collective Intellect
A brand program on the social activation platform of BlogFrog can involve dozens to thousands of influencers on a variety of social channels, including blogs, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, or Pinterest. Brands can measure their conversational influence with analytics that quantify consumer awareness, consideration, preference, and even purchase intent.
On Grotech Ventures
Founded in 1984, Grotech Ventures (www) Grotech’s (com) is a leading early investor in high-potential technology companies Grotech is looking for innovative IT companies with a particular emphasis on digital and social media; software and SaaS; security and storage technologies; health information technology; and communications technology and services. Grotech continues to invest and to add value throughout the growth of its portfolio companies. The firm has a strong combination of industry relations and deep domain and operational expertise to accelerate growth. Grotech is supporting early-stage companies through investments starting at $500,000
BlogFrog About
BlogFrog is a social activation platform for brand partners and digital influencers to power and enhance online conversations. The company’s technology platform allows brands to engage social influencers based on niche themes and target demographics, create advocacy-driven content and conversations, and measure performance with in-depth tracking and analysis. Bloggers use BlogFrog to increase readership and traffic, create interactions with readers and followers, and increase revenue through participation in brand programs. BlogFrog is a private company headquartered in Boulder, Colorado.
Please note that this piece of work originally appeared in English at https://www.vcnewsdaily.com/BlogFrog/venture-funding.php. As Investocracy aims to bring global startup news and updates in both English and Japanese to you, it’s important that we attribute original source to you. If you have any questions/concerns please write to us at contact@investocracy.co
