DURHAM, NC ––iContact, which sells an email marketing and blogging application, has secured $5.35 million in funding to increase its marketing and customer acquisition efforts.
Updata Partners, based in Reston, VA, and Edison, NJ, led the round with participation from NC-based venture firm IDEA Fund Partners. The company recently changed the name of its service to iContact and its corporate name to iContact Corporation.
CEO and co-founder Ryan Allis says TechJournal South’s Southeastern Venture Conference in January helped secure the deal.
“SEVC allowed us to begin critically valuable conversations with over a dozen top tier venture firms–more than half outside the southeast. The conference led directly to $5 million series A close less than 6 months later,” Allis says.
iContact will use the new funds to expand marketing initiatives, increase customer acquisition, and support product development efforts. The company currently employs 58 people in the Raleigh-Durham area, will hire 27 more by the end of the year, and expects that number to grow to over 100 in the next 18 months.
iContact is the first application in the world to allow businesses to manage all their online communications in one central web application. iContact allows its 11,500 customers and over 90,000 users to create email newsletters, blogs, RSS feeds, surveys, and autoresponders.
Customers include market leaders like Bank of America, Ford, Intuit, Vonage, Symantec, International Paper, LG Electronics, ReMax, United Colors of Benetton, and Centex Homes, use iContact. iContact, designed for the SMB market and iContact Enterprise, designed for mid-sized to large organizations.
“iContact is an established leader and innovator in areas where we see tremendous growth and opportunity, serving small-to-medium sized businesses with sophisticated, integrated online marketing solutions in an on-demand delivery platform,” said Griffin. “We look forward to working with the dynamic team at iContact to rapidly scale the company.”
“This funding will allow iContact to move to the next level,” says Allis. “Our rockstar team has built an amazing company over the past four years. We have worked hard to bring the best email marketing, blogging, and RSS feed web application in the world to our customers. It is our mission to be the leading worldwide provider of on-demand software that makes online communication easy. With this capital infusion, we can move even more quickly.”
Aaron Houghton, Chief Innovation Officer and Co-Founder of iContact adds: “Our philosophy is to invest in innovative product development ahead of the market to ensure that iContact leads the world of online communication. With partners like Updata and IDEA Fund Partners, we will be able to solidify iContact’s standing as the world’s leading all-in-one online communications platform.”
Houghton tells TechJournal South the company previously received a $500,000 seed round of convertible debt from NC IDEA in May. He says the company will likely look for additional funding in 18 to 24 months. “We have very profitable and successful marketing channels now, he says.
Carter H. Griffin of Updata Partners, has joined the iContact board.
For more see: www.icontact.com.
Southeast Venture Conference, February 29 – March 1, 2012 at the Ritz Carlton in Tysons Corner, VA – Where Smart Money Meets Smart People.
www.seventure.org
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