SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Addvocate, which helps brands deliver consistent messages through the power of their employees’ social voices, today announced it has closed a $2 million Series A round of funding led by Rogers Venture Partners and included angel investor Karen Riley. This Series A round follows an earlier seed round funded by multiple early angel investors, including Cyan and Scott Banister, Jay Baer and Jesse Engle.
“We are extremely pleased to have the opportunity to invest and partner with Addvocate,” said Will Stewart, General Partner at Rogers Venture Partners, Palo Alto, Calif. “It is not everyday you find a natural leader like Marcus, coupled with a team with such deep domain expertise in the corporate social media space. We were impressed by how Addvocate was able to launch its business with an amazing list of customer pilots in the Fortune 500.”
Founded by Marcus Nelson, former head of social media at salesforce.com, Addvocate believes that social media works best when brands engage their fans and customers with compelling, original content -- distributed by people customers know and trust. The key for businesses is understanding the best way to leverage the power of their greatest asset: their employees. Addvocate enables companies to identify, measure and optimize the social voices of those employees.
“Companies are still struggling to figure out how social media can help them boost profit and customer satisfaction,” said Marcus Nelson, founder and CEO of Addvocate. “Few realize that their own employees are the best distributors of goodwill, advice and messaging -- or that many of their employees want to participate. With Addvocate, companies create a network effect that encourages employees to opt-in when they see the amazing results their peers deliver.”
Addvocate’s cloud-based platform allows companies of any size to coordinate social media accounts, immediately identify internal experts who can solve customers’ problems, and distribute engaging content. Businesses can see immediately when social media directly impact sales and customer satisfaction. Addvocate is being piloted at multiple Fortune 500 organizations.
“In almost every company in the world, the employees collectively have far more social connections (and power) than the official company accounts,” said Jay Baer, best-selling author of Youtility and early seed investor in the company. “Addvocate harnesses this potential and makes it work for businesses and their people.”
The company also announced that Piers Cooper has joined as Chief Operations Officer. Mr. Cooper previously served as Vice President of Strategic Business Development at Oracle as well as a General Partner at McKenna Capital. He currently sits on the board of several Silicon Valley startups.
About Addvocate
Addvocate turns employees into brand advocates. The company’s flagship product is Addvocate™, an employee advocacy and coordination platform providing the technology, expertise and guidance to help businesses unleash employees’ social voices to increase sales, satisfy customers, and enhance brand reputation. For more information, please visit https://addvocate.com/.
About RVP
Rogers Venture Partners (RVP) is an early-stage IT-focused venture capital fund headquartered in Palo Alto, CA (www.rogersvp.com).
