SocialVibe Raises $8M to Help Others Raise Money

SocialVibe, a network that helps others raise money for various brands and charities, has raised some money for itself. The company has just closed an $8 million Series B round of financing led by JAFCO Ventures, with first round investor Redpoint Ventures contributing a large portion of this current round as well.

As a monetization platform, SocialVibe provides the destination and distribution tools needed to leverage the social media space for the purpose of promoting a cause and raising contributions for a given charity or brand. It aims to provide direct results for the use of one’s online presence, with a worthy goal in mind. SocialVibe does so through communities on its site, brand solutions for reaching out to relevant users across the web, and other tools for creating “influence” amongst end users.

A number of celebrities, including Hayden Panettiere, have spread their messages across the web via SocialVibe, raising awareness for causes dear to their own hearts. Being a more prominent network site in this space means that the more support SocialVibe receives, the more powerful it’s platform could become. To that end, the $8 million round of funding will go towards aggressive growth for its consumer and business partner relations, as well as increasing its own product developments as well.

These are both very important aspects of SocialVibe in terms of the company’s ability to leverage the online social media space (that includes getting influencers to spread their message on the site) as well as providing custom tools for those brands that need more specific services in order to reach their unique marketing goals. In all, the series B round of funding will heavily be supporting the nurturing of SocialVibe’s business model, which boils down to direct advertising options within the social media space.

In the year since launch, SocialVibe has grown to over 500,000 users, all of which SocialVibes is relying upon to help the company balance social media interaction and engaged marketing for a variety of brands and charities. Whatever success and failures SocialVibe encounters, however, will help the industry overall as brands look to more interactive options for leveraging social media in order to get their messages across.

Join Baratunde Thurston (left), The Onion’s Director of Digital and author of How to Be Black, for an entertaining look at creative social media campaigns in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. Other speakers include Morin Oluwole (Facebook), Tim Devane (bitly), and SocialTimes' writer Devon Glenn.   Register now.