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Tongal gets USD15m from Insight Venture Partners

Tongal, a social platform for marketers to produce creative video content, has secured a USD15m series B investment from private equity firm Insight Venture Partners.



Tongal plans to use the funding to accelerate the build-out of its community and to support plans for rapid expansion. 

Tongal was founded in 2008 by Rob Salvatore, James DeJulio and Mark Burrell.

Tongal’s brand sponsors provide campaign objectives and a cash prize pool, then release the challenge to Tongal’s community, the brand’s social following and the world at large.

The Tongal platform manages a fun and iterative ideation, storyboard, and production process that yields quality video content at lower cost and faster speed than current methods of content development. Challenges begin with an "Idea" round.  Once a sponsor selects the best Idea submissions, the Ideas themselves then move forward in the competition and more-technically skilled filmmakers bring the winning Ideas to life. Branded videos created via Tongal can be conceived of, produced, and ready to be deployed in less than eight weeks.

"Our brand customers are thrilled with the quality and in-market performance of videos being produced on Tongal, as well as the unexpected and fresh ideas that emerge," says DeJulio. "Tongal enables businesses to expand beyond the thinking within the four walls of their organisations, and provides the opportunity to unlock and access the world’s creativity — this is very powerful."

In 2012, Tongal experienced strong growth as marketers continued to shift online budgets towards more video content – revenue grew by more than 400 per cent, with many brand customers running multiple campaigns on Tongal’s platform. 

"Tongal’s customers told us how the company’s robust community, coupled with Tongal’s delivery platform, offers brand marketers a unique opportunity to satisfy their need for high-quality, innovative, and inspiring content," says Jeff Lieberman, managing director at Insight Venture Partners. "All this occurs at lower cost and with faster time to market – something truly differentiated among marketing solutions. We are excited to work with Rob, James, and the team as they scale Tongal."

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