Social marketing company Ebuzzing bags $25M

The European company gets help from Gimv

Ebuzzing, a European social marketing company formerly known as Wikio Group, announced Wednesday a $25 million second round of funding, with European investment firm Gimv leading the round with $14.5 million invested.  The company previously raised an $11.5 million Series A round, bringing its total raised to date to $36.5 million.

Founded in 2005 as the Wikio Group, Ebuzzing previously existed as the company’s advertising arm, promoting branded content through social media, with a particular focus on video.  Today, the company reaches 40 million unique visitors each month with the help of its blogging platform Overblog, its local search and recommendation engine Nomao, and its online how-to guide Experts.

The company recently completed its eighth acquisition in two years with the acquisition of German social marketing platform Trigami in June 2011.  Ebuzzing generated $15 million in revenue in 2010 and is currently on track to bring in $25 million this year.

“We are thrilled to support this group in its international development so that it can become the sector leader,” said Gimv partner Geoffroy Dubuz in a statement.  “It represents one of the best online teams in Europe, positioned on a market with a very high potential.”

Along with the new funding, Geoffroy Dubuz will also be joining Ebuzzing’s board of directors.

Employing over 160 people, Ebuzzing maintains offices in Basel, Hamburg, Dusseldorf, London, Luxembourg, Milan, Paris, Madrid, Toulouse and Rome.

 “This financing will allow us to speed up our growth throughout Europe,” said Ebuzzing CEO Pierre Chappaz in a statement.  “Today, thanks to our financial capabilities, we intend to seize new development opportunities.”

Ebuzzing has created campaigns for over 1,500 brands, including Redbull, World of Warcraft, Call of Duty, HTC, Exxon, Jeep, and Sony, among others.  

For more information on the rising social marketing industry, check out my recent interview with Clara Shih, author of "The Facebook Era" and founder of Hearsay Social.