Simply Measured is simply on fire.
Less than a year after the company took home GeekWire’s 2013 Startup of the Year award, the Seattle-based social media analytics startup is announcing a $20 million Series C round led by Trinity Ventures.
CEO and co-founder Adam Schoenfeld said that the fresh funds will help the company grow its workforce by nearly 100 in 2014, while rolling out new products at the same time.
Simply Measured works with big brands like Pepsi, American Express and Samsung to provide them with tools that analyze social media traffic and determine social media influencers from platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Instagram.
Schoenfeld is bullish on how the company fits into the overall social media landscape today, particularly when it comes to brands needing actionable data. He said that there are three “phases” of social marketing from an enterprise sense, the first of which began around 2006 when brands first watched conversations passively. The second phase arrived a few years later, when brands began engaging proactively.
Now, in 2014, Schoenfeld explained that social is becoming an extremely important part of the marketing mix. However, CMOs often do not have great tools that help them measure the new data from various places — and that’s where Simply Measured comes in.
“We see ourselves filling that need in an age where brands have to be social,” Schoenfeld said.
The company sure has come a long way since 2010, when Schoenfeld and his fellow co-founders (Aviel Ginzburg and Damon Cortesi) had no product and a name — Untitled Startup — that reflected the nebulous path they were taking.
But the founders have built a leading social media analytics company that’s now backed by nearly $30 million in funding. The 115-person team has more than doubled both revenues and customers over the last year.
Schoenfeld has high hopes that Simply Measured can become Seattle’s new hot startup.
“If we can establish ourselves as a leader, we think we can be the next Zulily, the next Tableau in Seattle,” he said. “That’s really what we want to do.”
Bessemer Venture Partners, Four Rivers Group, MHS Capital and other existing investors also participated in the latest round. Karan Mehandru, General Partner at Trinity Ventures, will join the Board of Directors at Simply Measured.
