Bethesda, Md.-based social media analysis platform Tracx closed a $12.5 million Series D round last week. And Chief Marketing Officer Jenifer Kern said that's only the start for the company, which is using the round to beef up its marketing and sales efforts.
Tracx has offices in Bethesda, New York, Tel Aviv and London. This latest round, which closed on Jan. 4, brings the company to a total of $38.4 million raised since it started in July 2008. As a part of the round, Jason Tagler, a partner at Camden Partners, will join Tracx's board of directors, according to the board. Camden Partners invests mostly in business services, healthcare and education companies.
The company is a "social listening platform" that works to capture all conversations about a brand on social media sites. Instead of just capturing posts that tag a company and interact directly with the brand, the platform, using a proprietary algorithm, can catch posts that just mention the brand without tagging it through keyword searches. For instance, if you mention Tracx in a tweet without tagging their Twitter account or using a specific hashtag, the platform will still be able to capture it.
Kern said the social listening platform plans to use their latest funding round to beef up their sales and marketing teams, improve their publishing and native advertisement capabilities, and also to help the company with its goal to become cash flow positive by the end of 2018.
"Everybody and their brother was doing email marketing [back in 2008], and that has really transferred over into this space," Kern said. "Most enterprise companies have a social media tool, so now there are 10-15 companies bidding on the same sort of work. It's a different demand equation. It's a very challenging space."
In the past year-and-a-half since Tracx's new CEO Rick Rudman joined the team, Kern said that there has been an additional focus on how the company markets itself and attracts new clients.
Trying to transform a marketing team, of course, is no easy task—especially with the breadth of social media analysis companies in the DMV. But Kern says finding the best way to market your team comes with innovation.
"We're not that unique in how we're positioning ourselves in the market, so we're trying to steepen our angle in our messaging," Kern said. "It's about finding the things that are resonating with a very selective group of buyers that have varied needs."
Image used via CC BY 2.0 — credit magicatwork
