– CANADA, Montreal – SweetIQ, the leading platform for local marketing automation, announced today it has raised $4.2 million in Series A funding, led by Plaza Ventures, with participation from Rothenberg Ventures, Desjardins-Innovatech, Otimo Retail Group, and Real Ventures (investor in the company’s seed round). The company will use the funds to fuel growth in the U.S. market, double the size of its team to accelerate its product roadmap, and launch new partnerships with major directories and offline data providers. Matthew Leibowitz, Partner at Plaza Ventures, will join SweetIQ’s Board of Directors.
“Over the course of the last few years, SweetIQ has been quietly building the most comprehensive local marketing platform to address growing market demand for a performance-oriented solution,” said Matthew Leibowitz, Partner at Plaza Ventures. “We look forward to working with SweetIQ to support the company’s exponential growth.”
While SweetIQ has tripled its annual revenues for a second consecutive year, this funding round, combined with the launch of the new version of its industry-leading local marketing platform, will enable the company to further increase its growth rate.
“When we started our business, the local marketing space was dominated by cookie-cutter solutions that focused predominantly on basic listings management, while providing little to no analytics,” said Mohannad El-Barachi, co-founder and CEO of SweetIQ. “Our approach from the outset has been to create products that drive performance for our clients, and are backed by a sophisticated analytics platform. Brands and marketing agencies on both sides of the border are buying into that in a big way. Now, with this latest round of funding, we have the capital we need to continue growing our business, and building out our marketing automation technology.”
Today, SweetIQ powers over 100 brands and marketing agencies across North America, helping digital marketing teams understand the performance of their physical stores online, and providing them with the tools they need to generate and execute local marketing campaigns, and measure their offline in-store impact. The company’s online-to-offline attribution model provides a clear visualization of the impact local marketing has on in-store visitors and sales.
“We have achieved so much to date, but we’re not stopping there,” added El-Barachi. “Over the course of the next few months, we’re adding a horde of new offline data sources that will further enhance our attribution model, with the goal of not only enabling our clients to better understand foot-traffic generated from local marketing initiatives, but also be able to predict it.”
About SweetIQ
Leader in local search marketing, SweetIQ helps Fortune 500 retail brands grow their in-store foot traffic by improving the online findability of their brick-and-mortar stores. Turning big data into actionable intelligence, SweetIQ’s marketing analytics and automation platform supports retailers and the marketing agencies that represent them, and empowers them in the reputation management of their brand. Unique in offering a campaign service, SweetIQ partners with its clients to support them in reaching their objectives. Founded in 2010, the company is headquartered in Montreal, Canada.
About Plaza Ventures
Plaza Ventures invests in Series A financing of high-growth technology companies with a unique rolling micro-fund model. The PV Investment Partner Program co-invests angel capital with corporate and institutional capital alongside other VCs and family offices, and applies the experience of our angel LPs to build enterprise value. PV has invested in early stage funds and accelerators across Canada and has completed follow-on investments in graduates from these programs.
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