Brand Networks Announces $68 Million in New Funding, Unveils Social Marketing Stack

Brand Networks, a company that offers Facebook, Twitter, and other social network marketing tools to brands, has raised $68 million in its first round of funding and announced the launch of its Social Marketing Stack on Friday.

Founded in 2006, the company has consistently reported revenue growth of more than 100 percent every year since 2010 and, up until now, had not faced a need for outside funding. With the social media market constantly in flux and new acquisitions being made regularly, Brand Networks was among the only companies left standing on its own, and has recently garnered a lot of attention from potential acquirers and investors.

Ultimately, the funding came from private-equity firm AEA Investors, which will now play a significant role in Brand Networks' future. In addition to providing funding, AEA has also taken two seats on the company's board of directors, and has appointed Kurt Holstein, a former Procter & Gamble executive and COO of digital agency Rosetta, as an independent board member.

As for how this new funding will be appropriated, Brand Networks' CEO Jamie Tedford has big plans. "We'll continue to reinvest in our products and stay ahead of market needs. We're also pushing to deepen penetration into verticals with increased sales and marketing resources and broaden our footprint with a laser focus on developing markets in the Europe, Asia, and Latin America," Tedford said.

The company, one of a select few to receive all four Preferred Marketing Developer badges from Facebook, for social publishing, social apps, social analytics, and social advertising, has also just unveiled its Social Marketing Stack—a tool designed to give brands a means of interacting with these four areas in one place through a unified dashboard.

"We're delivering a managed service comprised of enterprise-ready social software and digital marketing services to address the growing need for brands to manage all aspects of social marketing—publishing, ads, apps and analytics—from a central dashboard," Tedford says. "This is especially necessary for the Fortune 1000 brands that often have complex business structures with diverse goals, and are looking for a customized social marketing solution that will integrate across platforms and across the organization, from national to hyperlocal, ultimately resulting in more profitable customer relationships."

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