SANTA MONICA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--GraphEffect today announced that it has secured $12 million in financing to expand its enterprise collaboration platform for social marketers.
“The biggest problem in social marketing today is a lack of communication, coordination and transparency between brands, agencies and their vendors,” said James Borow, co-founder and CEO of GraphEffect. “In order for this space to reach its full potential, marketers need a connective layer between paid, earned and owned media, which is why we are doubling down on the GraphEffect platform.”
“This financing represents a vote of confidence from our investors in our vision and team,” said Clark Landry, co-founder and Executive Chairman of GraphEffect. “These additional funds will enable us to achieve our goal of providing the best marketing collaboration software available today."
The financing, which was led by Rincon Venture Partners and comprised a combination of equity and debt, will be used primarily to grow the development and product teams. Jim Andelman of Rincon Venture Partners will be joining the company's board of directors.
“The feedback we received from GraphEffect’s customers has been overwhelmingly positive,” said Andelman. “We’re tremendously excited to be working with this team and look forward to seeing them further reshape the social marketing ecosystem.”
GraphEffect’s customers include companies such as American Express, Toyota, Estee Lauder, Clorox, Dial and Red Bull, as well as digital agencies such as Digitas and OMD.
GraphEffect is also pleased to formally announce the GraphEffect Advisory Council. The Advisory Council will enable GraphEffect to more rapidly navigate the marketing landscape, develop products and identify new business opportunities.
New to the group are Noah Mallin, VP/Group Director, Social Marketing at Digitas, and Israel Mirsky, EVP of Emerging Media and Technology at Porter Novelli. In all, the GraphEffect Advisory Council consists of:
- Noah Mallin, VP/Group Director, Social Marketing at Digitas
- Israel Mirsky, EVP of Emerging Media and Technology at Porter Novelli
- Brandon Berger, Chief Digital Officer of Worldwide at Ogilvy
- Bob Dees, led media buying and strategy for all online P&G media spending
- Peter Hershberg, former co-founder of Reprise Media, sold to IPG
- Dave Knox, Chief Marketing Officer at Rockfish Interactive, which was recently acquired by WPP, and Partner at Rockfish Brand Ventures
- J.B. Kropp, Former VP of Strategic Partnerships at Vitrue, Inc and currently Strategic Partnerships at Twitter
- Hari Menon, former co-founder and CEO of Tumri and former Senior Vice President of Strategy and Business Development for Ensemble at Collective Media, Inc.
- Paul Ollinger, former West Region VP of Sales at Facebook
About GraphEffect
GraphEffect enables social marketers to seamlessly integrate and manage their marketing programs on a single collaboration platform. Fortune 500 brands and agencies use GraphEffect's software to coordinate their efforts and measure bottom line impact.
GraphEffect was founded in 2010 by Clark Landry and James Borow, and is backed by venture capital firms Lerer Ventures, Thrive Capital, Founder Collective, Rincon Venture Partners, CrossCut Ventures, Baroda Ventures, DFJ Frontier and Siemer Ventures. The company has offices in Los Angeles, New York and Chicago.