BOISE, Idaho--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Balihoo (www.balihoo.com), the premier provider of Local Marketing Automation (LMA) technology and services to national brands with local marketing needs, announced today the company has secured $5 million in new funding from OpenView Venture Partners, an existing Balihoo investor. Balihoo will use the new funding to fuel continued business growth and product innovations for its local marketing automation platform for national brands.
The new funding comes on the heels of Balihoo closing out 2012 with over 60 percent year over year revenue growth and continued customer growth across a wide range of industries and sectors in the first half of 2013, including financial services, retail, consumer brands, home goods and home improvement. Balihoo also enhanced its local marketing automation platform with a new Localized Social Media feature enabling brands with a corporate Facebook page to complement their national content with locally provided and relevant content viewable only by Facebook users in the appropriate markets.
“Balihoo continues to see strong new customer growth across all industry segments as well as continued growth from our existing clients taking advantage of new platform product features like Balihoo’s Localized Social Media capability,” said Pete Gombert, CEO of Balihoo. “The new funding from OpenView allows us to further invest into the technology which is currently powering marketing activations for over 300,000 local marketers. The marketing landscape continues to change rapidly and Balihoo is committed to staying ahead of the market for our customers.”
“National brands recognize the huge revenue opportunity that is achievable through local marketing, but face steep technology, scalability, and implementation challenges,” said George Roberts, Venture Partner of OpenView Venture Partners. “Balihoo has emerged as the leader in the software marketing platform technology market enabling brands to scale national campaigns at the local market level."
According to BIA/Kelsey’s U.S. Local Media Forecast (2012-2017), local media revenues are expected to climb from $132.5 billion in 2012 to $148.8 billion in 2017. BIA/Kelsey projects national brands to account for $51 billion of total local media spend by 2017. (See the “Local Marketing Growth Trend” infographic Balihoo produced in partnership with BIA/Kelsey for more local marketing research findings and statistics.)
“At BIA/Kelsey, we are tracking significant growth around the “national into local” marketing segment,” said Rick Ducey, Managing Director of BIA/Kelsey. “As dollars flow into local, brand managers and agencies are leveraging automation platforms to execute activation strategies that support brand awareness and sales lift in local markets. Innovative and scalable local marketing automation solutions offer the best opportunity for national brands to drive growth while maintaining brand integrity and delivering a local look and feel that really connects with local businesses and consumers.”
A frequent recipient of distinguished awards for its technology and company growth, Balihoo continues to attract top talent at all levels with its award-winning office culture and entrepreneurial spirit. Most recently Balihoo was named to Outside Magazine’s Best Places to Work in 2013 ranking of the Top 100 best places to work in the nation.
About OpenView Venture Partners
OpenView Venture Partners is an expansion-stage venture capital fund based in Boston that is focused on high-growth software, Internet, and technology-enabled companies. Through its staff of seasoned operating executives, who collectively bring several decades of technology and management experience to the firm, OpenView is able to help portfolio companies quickly optimize their product, go-to-market, and organizational and operational functions. Founded in 2006, the firm invests globally and has approximately $440 million in total capital under management.
About Balihoo
Balihoo is the premier provider of Local Marketing Automation (LMA) technology and services to national brands with local marketing needs. By automating local marketing, Balihoo gives national brands unprecedented control over local marketing execution and the ability to control the customer experience closer to the point of purchase. Additional information about Balihoo is available at www.balihoo.com.