Facebook is worth anywhere from $50 billion to $100 billion. Now Buddy Media, which helps advertisers manage their presence on the social network, is worth $500 million.
That’s the valuation sources say the company earned in its most recent $54 million financing round. New investor Insight Venture Partners put money into the company, along with earlier investors Institutional Venture Partners, Bay Partners and GGV Capital, which led the round.
None of the money will go to employees or early investors, says Buddy Media CEO Mike Lazerow; instead it will be used to fuel expansion in Europe and to double the size of the company’s staff. The New York-based company has now raised more than $90 million, including a $28 million round last fall.
Buddy Media’s services aren’t exclusively for Facebook — advertisers can use them for Twitter as well, and as Google expands its social efforts, there will likely be room for Buddy there, too. But it is primarily in the Facebook business, via software it sells to brands which helps them navigate through the social network, which usually includes purchasing ads from Facebook, too.
That linkage (note that Kevin Colleran, Facebook’s original ad guy, is now on Buddy’s advisory board) means that many assume Facebook will one day end up buying Buddy. But I asked Lazerow about that last spring, and he said he had no interest in the idea– as it turns out, he was likely deep into the fund-raising process at that point.
And he says he still has no intention of selling anytime soon: “We feel like we can be a very large independent business, so why not scale the business today and build it up?”
That’s the valuation sources say the company earned in its most recent $54 million financing round. New investor Insight Venture Partners put money into the company, along with earlier investors Institutional Venture Partners, Bay Partners and GGV Capital, which led the round.
None of the money will go to employees or early investors, says Buddy Media CEO Mike Lazerow; instead it will be used to fuel expansion in Europe and to double the size of the company’s staff. The New York-based company has now raised more than $90 million, including a $28 million round last fall.
Buddy Media’s services aren’t exclusively for Facebook — advertisers can use them for Twitter as well, and as Google expands its social efforts, there will likely be room for Buddy there, too. But it is primarily in the Facebook business, via software it sells to brands which helps them navigate through the social network, which usually includes purchasing ads from Facebook, too.
That linkage (note that Kevin Colleran, Facebook’s original ad guy, is now on Buddy’s advisory board) means that many assume Facebook will one day end up buying Buddy. But I asked Lazerow about that last spring, and he said he had no interest in the idea– as it turns out, he was likely deep into the fund-raising process at that point.
And he says he still has no intention of selling anytime soon: “We feel like we can be a very large independent business, so why not scale the business today and build it up?”