Facebook fan and advocate management platform Crowdly announced the startup has raised over $1.2 million in seed funding on Wednesday. Launchpad Venture Group led the round, with additional support from New York Angels and Laconia Ventures, both of New York City, and a number of angel investors.
The former TechStars startup plans to use the finances to expand its sales and marketing efforts, Crowdly CEO and founder Dan Sullivan told BostInno over email. "We're having a great response from the market who see us as very unique and valuable, and wanted to make the most of our first mover advantage," Sullivan said.
Before Crowdly, however, there was Appswell, a crowdsourced mobile app development platform, which worked with Forbes Top 100 companies, Kraft and General Electric to reel in Likes and fans for brands on Facebook.
"Appswell was good. It was a lukewarm success," Sullivan told the Boston Business Journal. "We knew what we needed to do next with it. In order to do that we couldn't keep selling Appswell."
So, Appswell reinvented itself as Crowdly, a Facebook community management tool that helps brands target which people are the most passionate and loyal in order to effectively and strategically increase engagement. Companies can use the startup's platform to discover, interact with and motivate the "Superfan" base within their Facebook community. In doing so, brands can capture beyond the buzz, and hone in on fans' responses and reactions to give companies insight on how to better find and engage consumers.
Crowdly is also the only platform that shows brands the lifetime influence of their top fans and a complete history of fans' interactions over time. "We're the only tool that can tell who people are in a brand community over time, and surface the advocates lost within the noise," Sullivan said.
With clients like the Patriots, Radisson and Hill Holliday, its clear that the corporate sphere is taking notice to Cowdly's unique offerings.
"There are lots of tools that are built around content, or sentiment, or comments," Sullivan shared. "Crowdly is fundamentally different because we're built around the advocate, identifying and connecting with that advocate on an authentic, human level."
