Early-stage venture capital firm Blumberg Capital, seed investor and largest institutional shareholder in HootSuite, has realised a 52x return on its investment in the social media management specialist in just four years.
Blumberg Capital and Hearst Ventures led the original seed round financing of HootSuite in December 2009 and a subsequent financing in 2011. Blumberg Capital has been the largest institutional shareholder in HootSuite until today’s Series B funding.
HootSuite has announced a USD165m Series B financing, led by Insight Venture Partners with participation from Accel Partners and existing investor OMERS Ventures.
"I congratulate Blumberg Capital on their success with HootSuite, which demonstrates what many of us have known for years – that Blumberg is often the first institutional investor to identify and fund savvy entrepreneurs with truly innovative ideas," says Dennis Phelps, general partner with Institutional Venture Partners (IVP). "I’m familiar with many of the other companies in Blumberg’s portfolio, and HootSuite is just one of several that could generate very large returns for the firm."
HootSuite has pioneered the category of social media management with more than seven million users worldwide who use its secure platform for social media management, marketing, customer service and selling.
"This is a significant milestone and a triple win," says David J Blumberg, managing partner of San Francisco-based Blumberg Capital. "First, our investors will receive over 52 times their investment. Second, this massive return validates our strategy of ‘Leading the Seed’ financings in early-stage, highly promising, and innovative software companies. Third, we welcome our new co-investors as the company grows to even greater levels of success in improving the efficiency and effectiveness of social media for enterprises and consumers."
