OMERS Ventures, the venture capital investment arm of the OMERS Worldwide group of companies, and leading social media management system company HootSuite Media Inc., are announcing one of the largest Canadian venture capital transactions to take place in the past 10 years.
OMERS Ventures is buying a $20 million ownership stake in Vancouver-based HootSuite via a secondary purchase from the companys existing shareholders. Customers including PepsiCo, NBA, the White House and others use HootSuite for collaboratively publishing and measuring social media marketing campaigns, as well as monitoring social channels to provide customer support.
In just over three years, HootSuite has grown to nearly four million users with dashboard sign-ups across six continents. To date, there have been 1 billion messages sent through HootSuite. Each day 1.5 million messages are sent using the dashboard, with an effective reach of 1.7 billion consumers.
The Vancouver headquartered company has grown from 25 people last year to a 140 person team today and is on track to reach 240 people this year. The addition of OMERS Ventures as an investment partner further positions HootSuite to continue this incredible growth.
The OMERS Ventures investment marks a new milestone in the growth of HootSuite. Were extremely proud of our companys trajectory, from a modest beginning three years ago to our current global leadership position. We look forward to working with the experienced team at OMERS Ventures as we continue to deliver world-class social media management, marketing, and analytics product offerings to our customers, said Ryan Holmes, CEO of HootSuite in a press release (see NEWS).
Launched last year, OMERS Ventures invests in venture capital assets on behalf of the $55 billion OMERS pension fund. OMERS Ventures looks for partner companies with strong entrepreneurial teams with potential to become leaders in sizable markets, particularly in the technology, media, and telecommunications sectors.
