Series C round
Austin-based social media compliance and engagement startup, SocialWare today announced a $7 million Series C round of funding led by CrunchFund after a successful 2011 which included a $3 million round in 2011 and $1.8 million prior to last year.
CrunchFund is an early stage venture capital firm founded by TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington, MG Siegler. SocialWare Advisor, Bryan Menell said, “the investors see great potential in Socialware’s grasp on the importance of personal interaction in social business initiatives.”
“Many companies miss the mark by only leveraging social media to elevate the company brand, but personal relationships are at the core of social networks. People have relationships with people, not brands,” said Patrick Gallagher, General Partner at CrunchFund and former principal with VantagePoint Venture Partners. “Socialware makes social networks work for business by enabling employees, who were once prohibited from accessing social networks, to build more meaningful relationships with less risk. The role of Socialware is instrumental as businesses start to recognize the true value of social media in a relationship economy.”
Socialware seeks “to transform the way that companies and their employees engage, communicate and collaborate with clients, partners and one another. Public social technologies such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter have reshaped the way we communicate in our personal lives and are now entering the enterprise. These new platforms are changing the economics of software.”
“We exist in a relationship-driven economy where value is derived from and measured by meaningful connections between individuals. Companies that find ways to tap into the immense visibility that social networks can reveal about those connections will emerge as leaders in the social frontier,” said Socialware CEO, Chad Bockius. “We’re helping companies move from a command and control approach of social to a democratic one that accelerates an employee’s ability to create authentic and valuable online relationships.”
