Toronto company gets US$25M financial boost

Toronto-based social media measurement software provider Syncapse Corp. has received US$20 million in venture capital that it will put towards hiring new software engineers in its Toronto, Ont., and Portland, Ohio offices.

ABS Capital Partners, a Baltimore, Md.-based equity investor company, is Syncapse’s first institutional investor that will also invest an additional US$5 million, according to Meg Sinclair, a communications manager at Syncapse.

Syncapse offers cloud software that helps enterprises manage, build and measure social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and WordPress. Some of the money will also be used for sales and marketing functions to attract more enterprise customers in addition to further development of the Syncapse Platform, which customizes workflow, social media publishing, analytics and content management.

The money will help Syncapse, formed in the year 2007, attract more enterprise customers because of the investment, according to Tim Hickernell, an analyst at London, Ont.-based Info-Tech Research Group Ltd.

“This is a time when big investment is scarce as opposed to 15 (to) 20 years ago, when people invested more freely,” Hickernell said.

Syncapse focuses on working for high-end companies with large social media networks to manage, according to Hickernell.

“If you are (Research in Motion) and have 30 Facebook pages in mulitple languages, you need help managing it,” said Michael Scissons, president and CEO of Syncapse.

Syncapse will use the money to add depth to its existing portfolio, for instance, including more robust software in multiple languages, according to Scissons.

 

The company ABS Capital made a wise decision investing in Syncapse because there is a growing demand for management of enterprises’ multiple brand lines and social media management in the cloud, according to Hickernell. There is a high gross market for brand management companies, he added.

“This (investment) reinforces the idea that customers are moving to the cloud,” Hickernell said. “Any company that does not get that it isn’t a fad will lose out.”