ExactTarget, a provider of on-demand email and one-to-one marketing solutions, has agreed a USD70m deal with three venture capital firms that will accelerate the company’s growth and ex
ExactTarget, a provider of on-demand email and one-to-one marketing solutions, has agreed a USD70m deal with three venture capital firms that will accelerate the company’s growth and expand its international presence.
Led by Battery Ventures, the round of financing includes investments from Silicon Valley’s Scale Venture Partners and repeat investment by Montagu Newhall and will provide ExactTarget a similar level of funding it sought to raise in its December 2007 unexercised application for an initial public offering.
The round is one of the largest venture capital rounds of investment in the US this year.
‘We have posted three consecutive years of profitability and continued quarter on quarter growth with the addition of thousands of new direct clients, but we know a significant amount of market opportunity remains both domestically and internationally,’ says Scott Dorsey, co-founder and chief executive officer of ExactTarget. ‘The investment by Battery, ScaleVP and Montagu Newhall accelerates our ability to develop new innovations while maintaining the operational flexibility we have enjoyed as a privately held firm.’
ExactTarget will delay its plans for its initial public offering and has withdrawn its application with the Securities and Exchange Commission to trade on the Nasdaq under the symbol EXTG.
‘ExactTarget is enjoying a lot of momentum and has the right ingredients to continue to dominate a large and growing market,’ says Michael Brown, general partner at Battery Ventures. ‘The company has a superior technology platform, a stable of extremely satisfied blue chip customers, and a team with the vision and ability to deliver on a huge opportunity.’
Brown, who currently serves as a board member of Fingerhut, will join the ExactTarget board of directors as part of the financing.
News of the equity financing round comes one day after ExactTarget announced a record-setting first quarter during which it welcomed 250 new direct clients and increased sales by more than 40 per cent over the same period in 2008, marking the 33rd consecutive quarter of growth and 13th consecutive quarter of profitability for the company.
