SOCi, the leading all-in-one marketing platform built for multi-location marketers, today announced it has closed a Series D investment round of $80 million, led by JMI Equity (“JMI”), a growth equity firm focused on investing in leading enterprise software companies. Additional participants included existing investor, Ankona Capital, along with personal investments from SOCi’s CEO and co-founder Afif Khoury and Seismic co-founder and CEO (and SOCi board member) Doug Winter. With this funding, SOCi plans to significantly accelerate its growth, with investments in its sales and marketing teams, an aggressive lineup of product innovations, and strategic M&A activity.
“The localized marketing movement could not have been more important than it was in 2020. For multi-location enterprises, the ability to connect with local audiences across numerous key marketing channels was critical to keeping their local businesses afloat. SOCi’s comprehensive platform was built to optimize that local engagement in every meaningful way, and we are proud to have empowered so many brands and their locations to thrive in an environment where so many have struggled,” said Khoury. “JMI Equity’s investment in SOCi in the midst of such a tumultuous time is a testament to SOCi’s value to its customers, as well as to its leadership, execution, and the tremendous market opportunity out in front of us. JMI’s experience and expertise investing in high-growth enterprise software companies, as well as their acumen for M&A, will help us move aggressively through 2021, and accelerate our localized marketing industry leadership.”
Founded in 2012, SOCi has emerged as the leader in localized marketing at a pivotal time when brands have become more reliant on local search and local social to reach customers about changes to hours, product availability, and logistics spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic. As a platform that plays a central command function for top multi-location brands, SOCi has witnessed the effects of this shift to local across top platforms like Facebook and Google and worked with enterprises to optimize and adjust their localized strategy to better compete amid this new reality and new marketplace – a position that has helped SOCi continuously exceed revenue and growth goals in the midst of one of the worst economic markets in decades.
“All signs point to an equally difficult first few months of this year for restaurants and other businesses dependent on their communities,” added Suken Vakil, General Partner at JMI Equity. “This means there will be a continued need for localized marketing campaigns that align with national brand values but also provide for community-specific messaging. SOCi’s multi-location functionality positions it as a market leader that currently stands far beyond its competitors as the must-have platform solution for multi-location franchises/brands.”
The SOCi platform is leveraged by more than 350 national and global enterprises – like Ace Hardware, Anytime Fitness, The Hertz Corporation, Nekter Juice Bar and others – to effectively manage local search, social, reviews, and ad campaigns for over 100,000 individual business locations and is well equipped to help marketers navigate unprecedented challenges as they continue to adapt to changing local regulations and safety measures. In 2020, the company added more than 100 new customers and nearly 30,000 additional business locations to its platform. SOCi also invested heavily in product innovation, expanding its platform with 55 new features and products.
A three-time Inc. 5000 Fastest Growing Companies in America award recipient, SOCi was also named Top Franchise Supplier by Entrepreneur Magazine, and won “Best Marketing Resource Management Platform” at the 2020 Martech Breakthrough Awards.
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