Visible Technologies has raised an additional $6 million, money that CEO Kelly Pennock said will help the heavily-funded company accelerate the company’s sales amid a consolidation wave in the industry. The deal — which closed earlier this month — was announced Thursday just a day after rival Radian6 was gobbled up by Salesforce.com for $326 million. Pennock tells GeekWire that the acquisition of Radian6 helps validate the industry of social media monitoring, the idea that companies can track conversations on Facebook, Twitter and other channels in order to drive more business.

Visible has now raised a total of $45 million, a hefty sum compared to Radian6. And that begs the question whether the company — which hit tough times last year with a CEO departure, layoffs and a massive product overhaul — will ever be able to get the same sort of multiple that its competitor just did?

“We love to see those kinds of prices associated with social media,” Pennock tells GeekWire. “We unapologetically believe that we have the most scalable platform that will work for big, big companies doing big, big things. Yeah, I think we can get to the right kind of acquisition.”

Based on the recent momentum with the new platform, Pennock thinks that is certainly the case. He estimated that Radian6 was doing about $20 million in annual revenue, noting that Visible was very much “comparable” to the Canadian competitor in size.

Pennock said business has been booming since the company released a new platform last quarter. Visible had a goal to beat its Q4 financials by 60 percent, and he said it is likely the company will actually exceed that plan by 70 to 80 percent.

“The adoption of this platform and the technology — and what it is doing for our customers — is a whole lot better than even we anticipated,” Pennock says.

He added that the market is growing very quickly, adding that “everyone is out looking for a social media solution.”

Visible is different, he said, because it actually can scale to meet the demands of social media traffic. There are plenty of other solutions out there, 197 by the count of Visible.

Pennock declined to say whether Salesforce.com approached him, but he did say some acquirers have been interested in the company.

Visible employs 85 people, and plans to add as many as five people in the next 45 days. “We are growing across the company,” Pennock said.

The new round of funding was provided by existing investors, including Investor Growth Capital, Centurion Holdings, Ignition Partners, In-Q-Tel and WPP.

Previously: Salesforce.com buys Radian6 for $326 million: So, where’s Visible?

John Cook is co-founder of GeekWire. Follow on Twitter: @geekwirenews and Facebook.

 

 

Like what you're reading? Subscribe to GeekWire's free newsletters to catch every headline

Job Listings on GeekWork

Find more jobs on GeekWork. Employers, post a job here.