Yext is announcing its first acquisition — software consulting and development company Citrrus.
Yext focuses on helping businesses large and small synchronize the content and data on their listings on services like Yelp. More recently, with the launch of a product called Pages, Yext is doing something similar for businesses’ own websites.
CEO Howard Lerman said that because Pages involves pulling data from a variety of systems, getting the product to work for enterprise customers can require more customization. In addition, he argued that “all great software-as-a-service companies offer their customers professional services.”
So Yext acquired the Citrrus team with the goal of turning it into the Yext Professional Services Group. Lerman said he’d known some of the Citrrus founders, and he was particularly excited about the company’s focus on mobile app development. The nine-person Citrrus team (seven software engineers and two designers) will continue to work out of their office in Vienna, Virginia.
The terms of the deal are not being disclosed. Lerman did say that the price was less than $5 million, and even though bringing on the team was the main goal, Yext is also acquiring some of Citrrus’ project management technology.
Yext launched a previous pay-per-call ad product (which it subsequently sold off to IAC) at the TechCrunch50 conference in 2009.
Lerman added that the company is currently at a $54 million annualized revenue run rate, up from the $34 million in revenue it saw last year and the $14.2 million it saw in 2012. The company’s customer base supposedly includes 300 of the top 2,000 “geomarketing” companies in the United States, with 1,500 certified marketing agencies reselling the product.
“We’re forecasting extremely strong continued growth,” Lerman said. “Even though this is our first acquisition, we expect to round out our team and our organization by pursuing acquisitions more aggressively.”
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