• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, February 18, 2014

Socialbakers has raised $26 million in a Series C funding, the Prague-based social analytics firm announced Tuesday.
 
Led by Index Ventures, the funding brings Socialbakers total capital raised to about $34 million.
 
The company plans to spend the money on product development, client expansion, and -- of particular concern to U.S. rivals -- aggressive stateside sales and marketing efforts.
 
“Now, especially, we’re setting our eyes on the U.S.,” Jan Rezab, founder and CEO of Socialbakers told Social Media & Marketing Daily on Tuesday. “This funding allows us to spearhead product innovation … for international expansion in high-growth markets.”
 
In the past 12 months, Socialbakers claims to have grown three times over, thanks to the launch of its social ad management platform AdAnalytics and the addition of more than 1,000 new clients, including Samsung, LVMH, Discovery, Disney, and Universal.
 
What sets Socialbakers apart?
 
“Most social-media analytics companies can tell you what’s going on within your own social strategy,” Rezab said. “But what they can’t do is provide insight on how to improve against your competitors … That’s where Socialbakers wins out and will continue to focus on for the future.”
 
The company is currently seeing 1 million visits per month to Socialbakers.com, according to internal estimates.
 
Staffing up, Socialbakers doubled its headcount from 150 to 300, last year, with plans to expand to more than 400 employees, this year. Among its more notable hires, Socialbakers recently brought on Neil Morgan, former vice president of Adobe’s digital marketing solutions in EMEA, as Chief Marketing Officer, and Neil Weston, a former Omniture executive, as its first Chief Operating Officer.
 
Investment -- and mergers and acquisitions activity -- in the social analytics space is expected to be bigger than ever this year.
 
Last month, Mohr Davidow Ventures led a Series A round worth $4.5 million in People Pattern, which specializes in identifying valuable audience segments based on social and enterprise data.
 
Twitter, Adobe and WPP are all reportedly eyeing Simplify360, a Bangalore-based social media analytics startup.