Social media auditing startup LifeBrand is finalizing an oversubscribed Series A round that will bring in $27 million and lift its valuation to $110 million.
LifeBrand initially sought to raise a $20 million Series A, said Jemma Barbarise, the West Chester company's co-founder and chief operating officer. The Series A will likely close in February, she said.
Barbarise declined to share the identities of investors. LifeBrand’s previous investors include Mikal Harden and Vicki Sack of Juno Capital. LifeBrand last raised an oversubscribed $2 million seed round in 2021.
Founded in 2018 by CEO T.J. Colaiezzi, LifeBrand has scored some major partnerships with local sports teams including the Philadelphia 76ers, the Eagles and the Philadelphia Phillies. Eagles wide receiver DeVonta Smith obtained equity in the company through an endorsement deal last year.
“It's just been wild to see how the company has grown like wildfire, not only among laypersons like you and I, but among people who truly can bring credibility to the space,” Barbarise said.
LifeBrand uses machine learning to audit the public social media accounts of its clients and provide Fair Credit Reporting Act- and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission-compliant social media background checks for employers. The startup lets current or potential employees log into their social media accounts, scans their posts and flags inappropriate posts. The service is also available for individuals who may want to clean up their social media presence.
The Series A will be used to cover overhead costs, product development and hiring, Barbarise said.
The startup is allocating one-third of the new funds toward hiring as the company looks to expand its team in West Chester and internationally. LifeBrand has about two dozen employees working out of its West Chester headquarters, along with employees in Kiev and Prague that bring its total headcount to 45. The startup plans to have about 10 more people hired by the end of January, Barbarise said.
LifeBrand isn’t only hiring in Greater Philadelphia. The company is looking at remote workers based in major metros like Washington, D.C., Atlanta, New York and Los Angeles, Barbarise said.
“We do like to have corporate sponsorships in those major metropolitan areas to help with entertaining potential clients, making sure that we are able to give them the best offering that LifeBrand has without having the full overhead of an office and having too much to manage in the areas,” she said.
The funding will also be used to hire legal and accounting firms who ensure LifeBrand is following international labor laws, she said.
Another third of the Series A will go to product development in an effort to make LifeBrand a household name, Barbarise said. The company released a new version of its product in August and generated about $250,000 in revenue in 2021, she said. LifeBrand had previously been working with its “skeletal” first product for about a year, and the startup delayed several contracts before launching the new product last year, she said.
"We wanted to make sure that when we pushed our tech out the first time, it was done right the first time," she said. "It wouldn't be something that our potential clients would have to come back with feedback, saying that it was not what they were looking for and that it was not what they wanted."
The current version of LifeBrand retroactively scans social media pages to find inappropriate posts, and the company is developing a real-time monitoring product that lets people post through LifeBrand as the app actively checks what they’re writing and monitors the pictures and videos they share.
“The tech is a no-brainer for us,” she said. “We have to expand. We have to build the biggest moat between us and any potential competitors that might come our way.”
