Gigya nabs $15.3M for SaaS social management

Advance Publications continues to invest in ways to better leverage Web audiences for its content

It seems like every company is searching for the magic combination of content, tone and consistency to increase their audience engagement to use the Web most effectively. 

One company, Gigya, focused on helping companies get more social just announced that it raised $15.3 million in venture capital, bringing its total to just under $45 million.

In this round Gigya added new investor Advance Publication, which manages such publications as Wired, The New Yorker, and Vogue as well as American City Business Journals. Adobe also joined several of the previous investors as part of the new round, including Mayfield Fund, Benchmark Capital, and DAG Ventures.

Just last week, Advance Publication led a $14 million Series A round for a social operating platform suite called UNIFIED. With such a big mainstay in media publishing continuing to invest in social engagement we may see more content producers backing tech options. 

Gigya has seen substantial growth over the last year, and the company now has more than 500 customers which reaches one billion unique users per month.

Social media management has been a big driver of acquisitions -- think Buddy Media, Vitrue, Hootsuite.

Gigya offers an SaaS solution with plug-ins that help monitor comments, ratings, reviews, live chats, and news feeds.

The company helps manage social aspects for customers including ABC, CBS, Pepsi, Verizon, Home Depot, White Castle, and PlayStation.

Gigya is now working with more than 40% of the comScore top 100 U.S. web properties and has expanded its presence by deploying its technology on top international properties including the London Evening Standard, The Independent and Goal.com. In order to meet rapidly increasing demand in the European market, Gigya has also opened a new UK headquarters in London.

In 2011, Gigya also introduced three new products to its suite of social infrastructure technology including Social Identity Management, Social Gamification and Ratings & Reviews. Additionally, Gigya’s 2011 sales more than tripled year-over-year and the average new deal size nearly doubled.

“Facebook’s dominance has firmly established social as the language of the web, and with Gigya, businesses can now interact with their customers in the same rich and personal way,” said Navin Chaddha, managing director of Mayfield Fund, in a statement. “By offering complete, SaaS-based social infrastructure, Gigya has gained mass adoption and its business has exploded. We are thrilled to be funding such an innovative and flourishing company.”

Gigya plans to expand its suite of social infrastructure products to help businesses monetize social engagement, referral traffic and permission-based social data. Already employing 130 people globally, Gigya will also continue expanding its product, sales and client services teams to meet the rapidly increasing demand for its products and services.