Vancouver-based Hootsuite Media Inc. has sold a $20 million stake in its social media monitoring software to equity fund OMERS Ventures, valuing the firm at $200 million, reports say.
The financing represents a second round of funding from existing investors, according to TechCrunch. Rather than taking a direct stake in the company, OMERS is buying shares from employees and early investors, Reuters reports. The news was first reported on All Thngs D.
HootSuite concluded its Series A funding round in Dec. 2009 and its Series B funding in Sept. 2011.
HootSuite CEO Ryan Holmes told Reuters the investment means HootSuite won’t be pressured into selling out to a larger firm. “I want to take that temptation of having an early exit off my plate,” he said. He’d rather see HootSuite grow to a valuation of $1 billion.
Hootsuite allows businesses to manage multiple social media channels from one Web-based dashboard. Its tools allow users to schedule messages for future publication, target audiences by geography, and have multiple people manage one social media account. The software has become helpful to companies trying to effectively market on myriad social media Web sites including Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and LinkedIn.
Social media monitoring companies in Canada have attracted large transactions in the past. In March 2011, Halifax’s Radian6 was acquired by San Francisco-based Salesforce.com for a reported $326 million.
OMERS is the Ontario Municipal Employee Retirement System, a Canadian pension fund.