By Shannalee T'Koy
Chicago-based Sprout Social, a social media management startup, just landed a $10 million investment from venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates (NEA). Combined with previous investments from Lightbank (an investment group created by Groupon founders Eric Lefkofsky and Brad Keywell) in November 2010, this brings the company's value to a total of $50 million.
“Sprout Social is embracing an increasingly powerful segment of the market in online commerce – the local business,” said NEA General Partner Harry Weller in a recent press release. “Sprout Social’s powerful platform will allow those businesses to manage and extend their relationships with customers across a range of social media channels.”
Described by Mashable as offering more robust management tools and affordability for the smaller brand or agency, Sprout Social is essentially a tool that helps monitor customers on social networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and location services, all from one central hub. Through its platform, companies have a way to find new, targeted customers; directly foster relationships with current ones; and analyze audience demographics for optimal outreach.
According to Justyn Howard, founder and chief executive of Sprout Social, today's consumers are “fairly cemented into social channels.” Even if companies are struggling to monetize social networks, he said, “[W]e still fundamentally need to talk to our customers… and [social networks are] where the customers are readily accessible.
Regarding the new $10 million in funding, Howard also said, NEA has a phenomenal team and shares our vision and ambition -- it’s an excellent fit...We’ve built a great foundation and a product people love. Our relationship with NEA will allow us to grow and cement our position as a market leader.”
For more information on Sprout Social, visit SproutSocial.com.
Original Post on www.midVentures.com
