It’s funny. I was only the other day standing on the rooftop of a London startup’s office as we cracked jokes over beers about the ridiculous amount of money SEO and marketing agencies used to charge clients. “Yeah, I used to fly into Dell’s Dublin office one a week to tell them about SEO. We used to charge thousands!” guffawed my interlocutor. Well, the boot is on the other foot now, and the evidence is growing. A simple search of Techmeme reminds us that confused marketers are searching for tools mot agencies and Teradata bought marketing automation software company aprimo for $525 million. Now, Act-On Software, a marketing automation company, raised a $10 million in Series C funding, roughly half a year after securing $4 million.
Today it’s announced it has secured $16 million in new venture financing. Norwest Venture Partners (NVP) led the round, with existing investors Trinity Ventures, US Venture Partners and Voyager Capital also participating. Act-On offers a platform that allows marketers to manage a variety of online marketing initiatives from a single, cloud-based system. Much less reliance on agencies, therefore. The company’s marketing automation platform integrates with a number of applications, including Salesforce.com and Webex.
Raghu Raghavan, founder and CEO of Act-On says the new investment will enable them to expanding operations globally and accelerate product innovation.
Because you can pay for its on a month-to-month basis it means customers can try it out just to kick the tyres. It says its main draws are a simple user experience, month-to-month contracts and speedy deployment. Act-On’s main competitors are Marketo, Exact Target, Eloqua and HubSpot.
In the last three years Act-On has grown from zero to 1,000 paying customers, and claims it grew over 300 percent in 2011. It has a UK sales office right now but more are planned.
It’s certainly boom time for marketing automation. Revenues for B2B marketing automation are projected to grow 60 percent this year to $525 million, according to Raab Associates.
Act|On Software allows business users to integrate their customer relationship management efforts across a variety of popular tools in one easy-to-use interface. Its capabilities range from building lead generation through website interactions to hosting and promoting webinars and other types of display events. The company currently integrates with Salesforce.com, WebEx, and Microsoft Outlook.
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