Investment Firm, Trident Capital Leads $10 Million Investment in Series B Funding Round for 8thBridge

Based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, 8thBridge has become a pioneer in the social networking industry and has also announced on March 22, 2011, that it has raised $10 million in series B funding round which was led by Trident Capital. Other investors, who participated in this funding round include Split Rock Partners, who originally participated in the company’s series A funding round.

8thBridge provides a social network to allow online merchants to partner with the company in order to build a social shopping network for their customers through Facebook and the merchants individual e-commerce sites. The platform that 8thBridge offers is unique in that it is able to reach a vast pool of potential customers who can provide enormous business for online merchants. The platform works by offering customers a shopping experience that is specified to the individual shopper’s tastes. As the individual shopper uses the platform that 8thBridge provides, he or she directly engages the merchant and makes purchases on his or her own terms. The merchants willing to accommodate to the shopper’s wants or needs allows for the customer to have a pleasant shopping experience, thus providing more revenue for the merchant.

Some of the products that 8thBridge offers to its clients to provide this shopping experience to customers include News Feed Stores. News Feed Stores are a product that targets advertisements specifically to an individual shopper according to his or her shopping habits with that merchant. The News Feed Store actually appears on a shopper’s Facebook page and allows the merchant to show brands that are available, which a shopper may what to buy. These News Feed Stores are very successful in generating sales by employing a tactic known as NFO or News Feed Optimization. This means that these News Feed Stores optimize the news feeds, such as RSS feeds to the customers and features brands and other merchandise that may be according to the customer’s tastes due to previous shopping habits.

One other product that has been a very effective revenue maker for 8thBridge’s clients in the Fan Page Store. This particular product works by making is much more easier for customers to negotiate with customers on their own terms. Basically, what 8thBridge aims to do with the Fan Page Stores is to bring the shopping experience directly to the customer’s Facebook page, which means that a customer does not need to search a merchant’s site to decide what he or she wants. The one thing, however, that 8thBridge has pioneered with both the News Feed Stores and the Fan Page Stores is that not only are they news feeds or new fan pages that appear on customer’s Facebook pages, but these stores also have an online checkout, just like on the merchant’s e-commerce site. This not only allows the customer to view merchandise right from their Facebook page, but they can also make a spur of the moment purchase if they choose to. This allows for a massive increase of sales for the merchants and thus the business that online merchants will be giving 8thBridge is projected to continue to grow.

Other products that 8thBridge provides to customers also include shareable storefronts, which allow customers to share a merchant’s storefront with their friends on Facebook. This is basically a high-tech version of the typical word-of-mouth advertising. This is actually the most affective product that 8thBridge offers its merchant customers, since over 80% of online sales made from 8thBridge’s products has been from this one, where shoppers have shared with their other friends and their friends have also made purchases and shared the storefront with even more people. Another great revenue generator for 8thBridge’s clients, thus more projected growth for 8thBridge.

Proceeds from this funding round will go to fund the expansion of 8thBridge’s current operations and to further entrench the company’s leadership in the emerging social network marketing industry.

According to the CEO and founder of 8thBridge, Wade Gerten, the executive team at 8thBridge has originally searched for investors to help with this funding round because the company’s solutions have been proven to be an asset to its clients and meet the growing demands of the social graph. Mr. Gerten further added that the new era of social networks opens a whole new door of possible sales to online merchants who can engage with shoppers directly on their social pages on big social networks, such as Facebook. In fact one of the first clients of 8thBridge was Delta Airlines, which has used 8thBridge’s products to create their travel store on Facebook, allowing passengers to book flights and hotel reservations directly from their Facebook pages.

Since then, 8thBridge continued to grow and is still growing to this very day. Besides Delta Airlines, 8thBridge has also successfully monetized all the social media from other big brands, including Lands End, 1-800-Flowers.com, Brooks Brothers, Hallmark, HauteLook, and the list of large brand clients continues to grow.

According to the managing director of Trident Capital, Evangelos Simoudis, the advent of social networks, such as Facebook, has revolutionized how merchants can market their products. In fact, with major social networks constantly connecting people, such as Facebook, Twitter, Bing, and others, marketing has taken on a whole new dimension. The products that 8thBridge brings to the market brings out a new phase of intimacy with the customers, making them more apt to purchase from that merchant. This is truly a revolutionary product that is sure to take over and dominate the emerging social network marketing industry. Mr. Simoudis further added that 8thBridge offers a unique variety of products that have already been proven to be successful in the social network marketing industry which is only projected to grow, thus the company proves to be a good opportunity for Trident Capital.

As part of the agreement of this funding round, Mr. Simoudis will also join 8thBridge’s board of directors. As he joins the board, Mr. Simoudis will work together with the other members to steer the company forward to success.

As part of 8thBridge’s expansion plans, the company will also enhance its social network marketing platform and provide a new product, which will be called StoreCast, which empowers a new feed of shopping on the social networks. This product will enhance the shopping experience on Facebook’s news feeds and fan pages, allowing consumers to stream shop at a much faster pace. This new product is projected to generate more leads that have the potential to generate even more sales than the products out on the market now.

Trident Capital is one of America’s leading venture capital firms in the IT industry. The firm currently holds over $1.9 billion on capital under its management and since its inception in 1993, it has invested in over 160 companies. Trident benefits its portfolio companies by not only providing the necessary capital to keep them up and running, but deep expertise in the industry. Other companies in Trident’s portfolio include Actea, HIP Digital, Exto!e, HomeAway, Kayak, iRobot, and others.