Influitive

Influitive is pioneering the B2B advocate marketing software market.

Advocate marketing is an emerging segment of the overall $20 billion marketing software industry. Marketing efforts rely on fresh leads to generate new business, but companies often ignore the power of existing customers. These “Advocates” are defined as customers who are passionate enough about products and services that they will refer and promote them for the sake of helping others, usually without much or any incentive. Rather than focus on an entire market, these programs are targeted for specific key individuals or types of individuals who can then influence a larger downstream market.

Influitive’s new marketing methodology and platform, AdvocateHub, allows businesses to engage, incentivize, and direct the activity of said advocates.

Founded in 2010, Influitive currently has close to 200 enterprise customers, including HP, Dell, Intuit, IBM, Oracle, Forrester Research, and LinkedIn. At the end of March, it achieved $432,000 in monthly recurring revenue and anticipates that growing to $1 million by next January. Influitive has -32% (negative) net churn and a Lifetime Customer Value of over 7.5x the cost of acquiring them.

Influitive is led by its Founder, Mark Organ, the Co-Founder and former CEO of Eloqua. Both VPs of Marketing and Engineering, as well as Influitive's Director of Product, worked for Mark at Eloqua, which he took public and that was later bought by Oracle for $960 million in 2012.

The round is being led by Georgian Partners, a growth equity firm based in Toronto. Influitive intends to grow into a broader platform, serving brands across any types of advocacy and, in doing so, capitalize on diverse revenue streams.

Influitive has offices in Toronto, Palo Alto, and Boston, and expects to open offices in London and Singapore next year.

Team Background

Chris Newton - VP of Business Development

Prior to joining Influitive, Chris was the VP of Marketing for Xactly Corporation, a sales performance management software provider, where he was responsible for creating one of the earliest advocate marketing programs using Influitive’s AdvocateHub platform.

Previously, he served as the VP of Marketing for numerous companies, including Deem (a Commerce-as-a-Service platform), Ketera Technologies (a SaaS Spend Management platform), and M-Factor (marketing and trade investment management). He began his career as the Group Director of Product Marketing for Siebel Systems (customer relationship management software), which was later bought by Oracle.

Chris served as a Lieutenant in the United States Navy for over 7 years before attending business school.

Chris holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from Rice University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Mark Organ - Founder & CEO

Prior to founding Influitive, Mark was the Founder, President, and CEO of Eloqua (later acquired by Oracle for $960M in 2012), which developed automated marketing and lead generation software and services for B2B marketers. Over 7 years, he grew the business, winning numerous awards, before taking it public.

Mark began his career as a Marketing Manager at Dundas Software, a data analytics and business intelligence software provider, before becoming an Associate Consultant with Bain & Co.

Mark holds a BS in Life Sciences from Queen's University and an MS in Neuroscience from Northwestern University.

Co-Investors

First Round Capital

Prominent seed-stage venture firm. Investor in AppNexus, Birchbox, Blue Apron, Mint.com, OnDeck, Simple, Earnest, Refinery 29, One Kings Lane, Uber, & Upstart.

Lightspeed Venture Partners

Prominent venture fund. Investor in companies including Bonobos, Snapchat, Double Click, & Nest.

500 Startups

Prominent seed fund and accelerator program founded by PayPal and Google alumni. Investments include AngelList, Unbounce, and Behance.

Relay Ventures

Investor in Reonomy, Greats, & BarkBox

New Enterprise Associates

World's largest venture fund. Investments include 23andME, Duolingo, Lot18, Evernote, Gilt Groupe, BuzzFeed, & Jet.

Hummer Winblad Venture Partners

Investor in The Knot & Napster

Georgian Partners

Growth equity firm, investor in Shopify

CommonAngels Ventures

Angel investor network based in Boston.

Illuminate Ventures

Early stage venture firm focused on enterprise cloud and mobile computing

Resolute.vc

Investor in Reonomy, Hopscotch, & BarkBox

Accelerator Ventures

SF-based VC that invests in early-stage tech. Investments in Zynga, Tapulous & Zappos.

Golden Venture Partners

Mobile focused seed and early stage venture capital fund based in Toronto.

Extreme Venture Partners

Accelerator and early-stage investor focused on Mobile, Big Data, & the Internet-of-Things.