The following note is a summary of Austin American-Statesman article was written by Melissa Rabeaux, ATI’s Marketing Communications Manager.
The Austin Technology Incubator congratulates Spredfast, for raising $1.6 million in funding from Austin Ventures. Spredfast joined the Austin Technology Incubator under the name Social Agency in October 2008, and graduated from the incubator in September 2009. ATI has worked with over 200 companies, helping them raise roughly $750 million in investor capital and create thousands of jobs. Over the past 2 years, ATI has worked with over 40 companies, helping them raise more than $50 million in investor capital. In addition, over that period, 6 ATI alumni companies realized liquidity events totaling over $250 million.
Austin-based Spredfast, which helps customers manage their social media efforts, has raised $1.6 million from Austin Ventures for expansion.
Spredfast’s software lets clients plan, execute and monitor online campaigns across multiple social media outlets, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and blogging platforms.
The company, which launched in January and has five employees, will use the money to expand marketing and product development, adding 10 employees in those areas over the next few months.
Spredfast was previously self-funded by founders Kenneth Cho and Scott McCaskill .
Spredfast, which was a finalist in the Microsoft BizSpark Accelerator at the South by Southwest Interactive Conference and Festival, has carried out more than 1,200 initiatives for 750 companies. A standard package costs $50 per month per initiative.
Its customers include AOL, Hewlett-Packard, TOMS Shoes and Oracle.
In Austin, HomeAway Inc. used the company’s software to manage the online components tied to its advertisement in the 2010 Super Bowl, and Truluck’s restaurant kicked off its social media outreach with the software.
“Companies are currently just blasting messages out there, guessing at what’s going to stick and not really measuring how effective their messages are,” Cho said. “Spredfast figures out the right content, the right message and the optimal time to send it out there. We can measure every piece of content that is distributed.”
Mike Dodd , a venture partner with Austin Ventures, said social media is the next big opportunity for online marketers to reach new customers. “The new social media channel needs a tools platform to manage marketers’ campaigns and measure their return on investment, and Spredfast has the best solution we have seen.”
Austin Ventures, which has been the main source of capital for dozens of local tech companies since 1979, has done fewer early-stage deals in recent years. The firm is currently investing a $900 million fund, with a third going to early-stage companies and the rest being used to buy or invest in established companies.
Spredfast, whose name plays off the idea of helping companies spread a message through social media, is competing in a field already crowded with startups, including ObjectiveMarketer of San Francisco and Radian6 of Canada.
“It’s the first inning in this market, and our goal is to build this out quickly by building new tools and possibly through acquisitions,” Dodd said.
Cho said Spredfast was pursued by a number of Silicon Valley and East Coast venture investors but chose Austin Ventures because it wanted a local partner.
“We wanted a Texas-based firm … because we want to make sure that Austin and Texas get on the map when it comes to social media,” he said. “There’s a lot of great local talent here, but Austin hasn’t really emerged as a center for social media. We want to help change that.”
http://www.statesman.com/business/technology/spredfast-gets-1-6-million-for-expansion-565781.html
