Promoboxx, a SaaS marketing platform that aligns brands and their retailers, today announced an $8.2 million Series A round of funding led by Ascent Venture Partners and Grotech Ventures with continued participation from existing investors Launch Capital, Converge Venture Partners, Boston Seed Capital, StageOne Ventures and several Boston angel investors. Promoboxx is the only SaaS marketing platform that empowers national brands to connect and align with their local retailers to drive revenue. This new funding will enable Promoboxx to scale to meet the demand in the U.S. and overseas for its marketing platform.
"Consumers are highly informed and have never had more choices with regards to what and where to purchase products. To stay ahead of the curve, brands and retailers must work together on digital solutions that motivate consumers to take action in store," said Matt Fates, general partner at Ascent Venture Partners. "Promoboxx is uniquely positioned to revolutionize the way in which brands connect and align with their retailers. With marketing technology innovating at a furious pace, we're thrilled to participate in this unique space, and support Promoboxx through an accelerated growth period."
Traditionally, brands have struggled to enable retailers to properly promote their products, and retailers haven't had the time or resources to do it well on their own. Promoboxx allows a brand's corporate marketing team to easily share digital content and campaigns that retailers can localize and approve in a few simple steps. The Promoboxx platform is optimized to drive retailer engagement while providing brands with comprehensive reporting on retailer and consumer impact. Retailers stand out by having access to updated brand content, cutting edge marketing campaigns, and metrics that track reach and effectiveness.
"At Grotech we pride ourselves on being long-term partners for the companies that we invest in. We were attracted to Promoboxx because they meet our criteria of having a breakthrough and innovative approach to one of the largest problems in commerce today - helping manufacturing brands align with their local retailers to drive sales," said Steve Frederick, general partner at Grotech Ventures. "Ben and the team have built an amazing business and roster of blue-chip clients and we look forward to building the company into the next dominant marketing platform."
"We are very excited to welcome Ascent and Grotech as new investors. Having the financial and strategic support of these sophisticated investors both validates the market opportunity and fuels our momentum as a company," said Ben Carcio, CEO and co-founder, Promoboxx.
Matt Fates of Ascent venture Partners and Steve Frederick of Grotech Ventures are joining Promoboxx's board of directors.
Founded in 2010, Promoboxx has experienced impressive growth, having raised only $2.2M in venture funding, relying instead on revenue generated by customer demand to fuel its growth. Today, Promoboxx works with over 30 leading brands, including Arc'teryx, Cargill, Chevrolet, GE Appliances, New Balance, Nissan, Shaw Floors, and Specialized Bicycle Components, connecting and aligning over 16,000 retail locations. Brand campaigns launched through Promoboxx have resulted in almost 1.5 million retailer shares of content on social media and almost 10 million consumer visits to retailers' landing pages promoting brands' products.
ABOUT PROMOBOXX
Promoboxx is the only marketing platform that connects and aligns national brands and local retailers to drive sales. Founded in 2010 and headquartered in Boston, Mass., Promoboxx works with leading brands in the outdoor, footwear, auto, appliance, flooring, animal nutrition, and hearing aid industries. Promoboxx is a TechStars Boston 2011 graduate. More information is available at www.promoboxx.com.
ABOUT ASCENT VENTURE PARTNERS
Ascent Venture Partners is dedicated to investing in innovation for the enterprise. In backing more than 100 early-stage, emerging technology companies, Ascent has remained committed to its mission of partnering with exceptional entrepreneurs striving to build innovative market leaders. Ascent's investments have yielded powerful results generating more than $10 billion in enterprise value, which speaks to the firm's deep sector knowledge, experience and networks. The Ascent investment team manages six venture funds with total commitments of more than $500 million, and is located in Boston, Mass. For more information, please visithttp://www.ascentvp.com/.
ABOUT GROTECH
Founded in 1984, Grotech Ventures (www.grotech.com) is a leading early investor in high-potential technology companies. With more than $1.3B under management, Grotech seeks innovative, early-stage IT companies and continues to invest and add value throughout the growth of its portfolio companies. The firm has a strong combination of industry relationships and deep domain and operational expertise to accelerate growth. Grotech supports early-stage companies through investments starting at $500,000. General partners include Frank Adams, Chuck Cullen, Lawson DeVries, Steve Fredrick, Don Rainey and Joe Zell. The firm has offices inVirginia, Maryland and Colorado.
