SocialToaster Closes Series A Funding in the Amount of $1.975 Million

BALTIMORE, June 27, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- SocialToaster is pleased to announce the closing of its oversubscribed Series A funding round in the amount of $1.975 million. Their second round of funding follows on the heels of a $530K seed round last year from Neuberger Ventures and other individual investors. Now, with the financial backing of venture capitalists Blu Venture Investors, Baltimore Angels, Wasabi Ventures, and Piedmont Investment Advisors the hot, new software company can build on its early success creating brand advocacy programs that increase social sharing from fans on social networking sites.

SocialToaster CEO Brian Razzaque said, "We're thrilled to receive a second round of funding to continue SocialToaster's rapid growth. We plan to quickly build out the team with sales people, account managers, and technical staff to enhance our product. We will also ramp up our marketing efforts."

William Militello, Founder of Piedmont Investment Advisors, LLC commented, "I am always excited to fund great entrepreneurs.  I believe that true innovation occurs when skilled labor, intellectual capital, and entrepreneurs with great ideas are combined with the financial capital Piedmont can provide."

SocialToaster amplifies corporate messaging on brands' social networking sites, proving that there is immense value in social media engagement. Loyal fans of a brand called 'Super Fans' are mobilized with an email whenever the brand has blog postings, events, articles, or promotions for them to promote. With just one click, Super Fans share the brand's content with peers across all of their selected social networking sites. The visibility of the message increases exponentially as the content is shared. SocialToaster's clients are seeing anywhere from 60 to 74 percent of their content shared across the social networks of their fans every time it gets delivered through the SocialToaster. This level of engagement is extremely hard to achieve when promoting content through corporate social media accounts alone. SocialToaster believes the incredible share rates are a result of the combination of the gamification elements of the software that tie rewards to sharing and recruitment of new fans and the ease of use for our client's consumers.

Paul Silber of Blu Venture Investors, the lead investor in the Series A funding round, said, "our team was really attracted to SocialToaster's novel "message amplification" solution, to the company's leadership, and to the fact that they were rapidly gaining traction with recognizable name-brand customers. We liked the fact that their software solution offered a cost-effective and simple way for organizations of all kinds to effectively use social media to get their message out to a wider audience."

Silber added, "When three different people in my network independently suggested that I should take a look at SocialToaster, I knew that there must be something worth investigating. We are optimistic that this funding will be sufficient for the company not just to grow revenues more rapidly, but also to become a profitable enterprise."

"SocialToaster is an exciting company that represents everything we love to see in our portfolio companies: a smart team who is executing at a high-level on solving real world market issues.   We are excited to be a part of the SocialToaster story," stated TK Kuegler, General Partner of Wasabi Ventures.

Greg Cangialosi, Managing Member of the Baltimore Angels, concluded, "Brian and the team at SocialToaster have been executing extremely well since the launch of their product. We've been watching them over the past many months, and we really like where the team and the business are headed.  We're excited to be in this financing round, and look forward to helping the SocialToaster team beyond just investment."

About Social Toaster

SocialToaster, a hip software company based in Baltimore, Maryland provides a simple way to amplify the reach of messages on social networking sites by making content sharing fun and easy. SocialToaster mobilizes Super Fans of media and entertainment brands, sports teams, and other major brands to increase fan engagement, drive website traffic, and strengthen brand loyalty. As an alternative to traditional advertising, SocialToaster helps clients monetize the social channel by increasing the visibility of posts and maximizing their potential reach in a repeatable, measurable way. Unlike its competitors, SocialToaster empowers Super Fans to push controlled content directly to their peers. To learn more about SocialToaster, visit www.socialtoaster.com.

MEDIA CONTACT

Sandra Schwartzman
RMR & Associates
(301) 230 – 0045 x 100
sschwartzman@rmr.com

SOURCE SocialToaster