PALO ALTO, CA--(Marketwire - April 26, 2010) - Wildfire Interactive, Inc. (www.wildfireapp.com), a leading provider of social media marketing software, announced today that it has received a minority investment led by growth equity investor Summit Partners and joined by a group of angel investors including Jeff Clavier, Aydin Senkut and Gary Vaynerchuk.The investment will be used to fund Wildfire's organic growth initiatives and continued development of the company's social media marketing platform.
Founded in 2008, Wildfire offers a dynamic, self-service marketing platform that enables organizations to engage users and build followings on social networks and company websites. The software allows corporations, small businesses, marketing agencies, bloggers and non-profits to create their own branded social media marketing campaigns -- such as sweepstakes, user-generated contests, quizzes, coupons and incentive-based surveys -- and publish them simultaneously on their websites and various social networks. The company currently serves thousands of customers, including Pepsi, Facebook, Sony, AT&T, Unilever, Yahoo!, Electronic Arts, LiveNation, Edelman Digital, Victoria's Secret and Subway, and has powered tens of thousands of social media marketing campaigns. Wildfire is growing rapidly, and after a small investment by the fbFund in 2009, achieved profitability early on in its life.
Victoria Ransom, Cofounder and CEO of Wildfire, said, "Wildfire is a privately financed company that reached profitability just a few months after inception, so the decision to raise outside capital was an important strategic move for us. Teaming up with Summit Partners will provide our company with additional support as we rapidly expand our product offering and enhance our already valuable service to customers." Alain Chuard, Cofounder and Head of Product Management, added, "We're very excited to add Summit Partners to our roster of world-class investors, which also includes the fbFund. Without Facebook, we would not be where we are today. With access to Summit's strategic guidance, global network of contacts and long history of partnering with growing software companies, we look forward to taking our company to the next level."
"At Summit Partners, we've been making growth equity investments in software companies for more than 25 years. We are seeing large-scale, increasing demand for social media marketing solutions, and Wildfire is ideally positioned to become a market leader," said Harrison Miller, a Managing Director with Summit Partners who will join the Wildfire Board of Directors. "We have been extremely impressed by Wildfire's track record, exceptional management team and list of marquee customers. We look forward to working with this terrific organization to achieve even greater success."
About Wildfire Interactive, Inc.
Headquartered in Silicon Valley, Wildfire Interactive, Inc. (www.wildfireapp.com) is a technology company that's dedicated to helping businesses of all sizes leverage the marketing power of social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. Wildfire's patent-pending technology platform allows corporations, small businesses, agencies, bloggers and non-profits to easily create their own attractive, branded social media marketing campaigns -- for example, sweepstakes, contests, coupons, giveaways, quizzes, and virtual gift campaigns -- and publish them simultaneously on Facebook fan pages, on company websites (integrated with Facebook Connect) and on Twitter. Intuitive, streamlined and affordable, Wildfire's platform is simple enough for even the least tech-savvy business manager to use, and flexible enough to suit the needs of the most creative marketer or advertising agency. Wildfire is a two-time winner of the Facebook Fund and was runner-up in the TechCrunch Crunchies Awards in 2010.
About Summit Partners
Summit Partners (www.summitpartners.com) is a growth equity investor that provides private equity and venture capital to rapidly growing companies. Founded in 1984, Summit has raised more than $11 billion in capital and has provided growth equity, recapitalization and management buyout financing to more than 300 growing companies across a range of industries and geographies. Summit Partners seeks outstanding management teams that have built their companies to market leadership. Summit's notable software and Internet investments include AvePoint, Hyperion Software, Jamba!, McAfee, Postini, RightNow Technologies, NetWitness, SafeBoot, Tiny Prints, and Vente-Privee.com.
In the United States of America, Summit Partners operates as an SEC-registered investment advisor. In the United Kingdom, this document is issued by Summit Partners Limited, a firm authorized and regulated by the Financial Services Authority. Summit Partners Limited is a limited company registered in England and Wales with company number 4141197, and its registered office is at 20-22 Bedford Row, London, WC1R 4JS, UK. This document is intended solely to provide information regarding Summit Partners' potential financing capabilities for prospective portfolio companies.
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Summit Partners:
Joan Miller, Summit Partners
+1-617-824-1047