Bennett Jones
TORONTO – Hootsuite announced today that it has secured an additional $165 million US in capital for its Series B Financing round, in order to continue meteoric growth and dominance as a social relationship platform. The latest deal, representing one of the largest rounds of global venture capital funding, is a co-investment led by Insight Venture Partners, with participation from Accel Partners and existing investor, OMERS Ventures.
Recently celebrating its 4th birthday, HootSuite pioneered the category of social media management. Today, HootSuite has more than 7 million users in nearly every country around the world that use its secure, social relationship platform for social media management, social marketing, social customer service, and social selling.
The deal also marks a milestone for OMERS Ventures, the investment arm of the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System. Since its launch less than two years ago, the fund has operated as a "lifecycle partner" to entrepreneurs and high-growth ventures.
"OMERS Ventures invested in HootSuite in 2012 because we were convinced – like company founder and CEO Ryan Holmes is convinced – that it will one day become a billion-dollar concern" said John Ruffolo, Chief Executive Officer of OMERS Ventures. "People tend to fall in love with technologies, and the fact that HootSuite has rapidly signed on over seven million users worldwide shows that people are passionate about this particular product."
Working with OMERS Ventures on its Hootsuite transactions was Bennett Jones Partner and Head of Technology, Media & Entertainment, Barry Reiter.
"In 2012, OMERS Ventures invested in HootSuite because they believed in the integration of social media within the enterprise," says Reiter. "OMERS' example of investing in Canadian ventures is one to be recognized and emulated", he adds.
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