Socialbakers gets $26M in Series C, to ‘define the future of marketing’

One of the largest social media analytics companies, Socialbakers, has capped off a successful 12 months by securing US$26-million in Series C financing. The round was led by Index Ventures alongside existing investor Earlybird Venture Capital.

The financing is one of the largest rounds for a social analytics company outside of North America. The money will go towards product development, as well as improving client support, sales and marketing in the USA and other markets around the world.

Socialbakers’ driving force is to become the “international standard” for how social media marketing is measured and optimised. It’s gone a long way in achieving that with a client base that includes half of all Fortune 500 companies.

“Social is defining the future of marketing,” said Jan Rezab, CEO of Socialbakers, “…Socialbakers is uniquely positioned to deliver the much-needed insights into content, engagement and advertising that enables marketers to succeed in social marketing.”

According to Jan Hammer, Partner at Index Ventures, Socialbakers has successfully juggled the demands of high-profile clients, providing them with intelligent solutions for all their social marketing needs and is positioned to move from being a leader in social analytics to actually defining “the next generation of insight-driven social marketing applications.”

As brands have wised up to the importance of how they are perceived in social media, the social analytics field has seen increased interest from VCs and enterprises alike.

Socialbakers currently enjoys one million visits per month to its website, making it one of the leading portals for social marketing insights. It’s quarterly standard, Socially Devoted, benchmarks leading brands — across more than 100 countries — and these insights have become invaluable to social media managers, agencies, and researchers around the world to formulate strategies and spot trends.

Socialbakers, which launched in 2009, has enjoyed an impressive 12 months; growing its revenue three-fold in 2013 alongside 1000 new clients including Samsung, Discovery, Disney and Universal, and opening new offices in New York, Singapore, Paris and Munich.