Vitrue Raises $17M, ex-Facebook Exec Named Special Advisor

Reggie-Bradford

To better position itself at the nexus of advertisers' interest in social media, Vitrue has raised $17 million Series C financing, the social media services provider is expected to announce Thursday.

Led by Scale Venture Partners, the round also included participation from Advent Venture Partners, General Catalyst Partners, Comcast Interactive, and Dace Ventures.

With the funding, Atlanta-based Vitrue plans to opens offices in New York, San Francisco, Dallas, Chicago, Detroit, Cincinnati and Los Angeles, along with international outposts in London, Toronto and Singapore. The company also plans to hire between 100 and 150 new employees over an unspecified time period.

"We will aggressively scale the company," promised Reggie Bradford, CEO of Vitrue. "With the explosion of Facebook, Twitter and mobile location-aware applications, the opportunity for brands to ... engage ... consumers has never been greater."

Also on Thursday, Vitrue is expected to name Mike Murphy, former Facebook vice president of global sales, to the newly created position of special advisor to the CEO.

In this capacity, Murphy will work closely with Bradford and collaborate on various aspects of its business, including global relations.

Vitrue is no stranger to Facebook. Last year, it added a new option to its platform that allowed advertisers to insert mini applications into fans' news feeds with the intention of boosting interaction on brands' Facebook pages.

The Wall Apps offered through Vitrue's social relationship manager suite included customizable coupons, polls and quizzes, slide shows, email and events-related applications.<

The company's Web-based social-media system already allowed marketers to create posts on Facebook and Twitter, which incorporate video and other multimedia elements to lure users into spending time with branded content.

1 comment about "Vitrue Raises $17M, ex-Facebook Exec Named Special Advisor".
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  1. Owen Weed from BLiNQ Media, February 17, 2011 at 2:25 p.m.

    Great - now vitrue can go buy more fans since they've been stuck at 9,000

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