ZEFR Announces $0 Million in Financing Led by Institutional Venture Partners

SaaS Solution for Brands and Content Owners on YouTube Raises Capital to Accelerate Growth

VENICE, Calif., Feb. 26, 2014 ZEFR, a leading platform that builds social marketing and rights management software for online video, announced today that it has raised $30 million in a new financing, led by Institutional Venture Partners (IVP) that included participation from existing investors U.S. Venture Partners, Shasta Ventures, First Round Capital and Richmond Park Partners. In conjunction with the financing, IVP General Partner Dennis Phelps has joined ZEFR's board of directors. The new capital will be used to drive the company's software development and grow its sales and marketing teams.

ZEFR provides SaaS solutions for the largest brands and content owners on YouTube. ZEFR's BrandID platform connects fans and franchises and help brands manage and monetize their fans. Top brands like Adidas and agencies like Wieden and Kennedy and the Starcom Media Group use BrandID to identify a brand's fan-uploaded content (as well as competitor content) and connect the brand with those who care about it most. ZEFR also manages and monetizes professional rights for major studios and labels. Clients include Warner Bros., Saturday Night Live, Sony Music, Real Madrid, Universal Pictures, and others.

IVP and Dennis are well regarded for their support of entrepreneurs, the value they bring to their portfolio companies and their stellar portfolio. When we thought about our growth round, we knew we wanted to work with them, said Zach James, co-founder, ZEFR. This is an exciting time for ZEFR. Our software solution fills a huge need in the market, we have an incredible team and we have momentum. With the new capital, we are going to add fuel to the fire.

Zach and Rich are world-class entrepreneurs who saw a massive opportunity in thinking about the YouTube platform for large brands and content owners, said Phelps. ZEFR is the market leader and delivers real value for its enterprise customers. We are thrilled to be part of the next phase of the company's growth.

The news comes at a time of strong growth for the company. Milestones include:

100% revenue growth year-over-year for the last three years

Doubling the size of the engineering team

Opening an office in New York

About ZEFR

ZEFR is the leading SaaS platform for brands and content management on YouTube. ZEFR provides enterprise technology solutions for the world's most respected brands and the largest professional rights owners, allowing them to measure, leverage and engage fans of their content and products on YouTube. ZEFR helps partners understand fans, monetize IP, create awareness and build an audience on YouTube. Clients include adidas, Warner Bros., Sony Music, Real Madrid, Universal Pictures, Saturday Night Live, Hasbro Studios and more. ZEFR is headquartered in Venice, CA. For more information, please visit www.zefr.com.

About Institutional Venture Partners (IVP)

With $4 billion of committed capital, Institutional Venture Partners (IVP) is one of the premier later-stage venture capital and growth equity firms in the United States. Founded in 1980, IVP has invested in over 300 companies, 97 of which have gone public. IVP is one of the top-performing firms in the industry and has a 33-year IRR of 43.2%. IVP specializes in venture growth investments, industry rollups, founder liquidity transactions, and select public market investments. Since its inception, IVP investments include such notable companies as ArcSight (HPQ), Buddy Media (CRM), ComScore (SCOR), Concur Technologies (CNQR), Dropbox, Fleetmatics (FLTX), HomeAway (AWAY), Juniper Networks (JNPR), Kayak (PCLN), LegalZoom, LifeLock (LOCK), Marketo (MKTO), MySQL (ORCL), Netflix (NFLX), ngmoco (DeNA), Polycom (PLCM), Pure Storage, RetailMeNot (SALE), Seagate (STX), Shazam, Snapchat, Supercell, Synchronoss (SNCR), Tivo (TIVO), Twitter (TWTR), and Zynga (ZNGA). For more information, visit http://ivp.com or follow IVP on Twitter: @ivp.

--

LINK:	http://www.ivp.com/news/press-release/zefr-announces--30-million-in-fi...
	See more stories from ivp

Most recent headlines