The Transaction Marketing Company Will Use Investment to
Accelerate Global Growth, Acquire Strategic Assets
NEW YORK, Feb. 15, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- ROKT today
announced it has completed a $15
million Series "B" investment led by Moelis Australia Asset
Management, part of Moelis & Company (NYSE: MC). In addition,
Time Inc. (NYSE: TIME) participated in this round along with
existing investors including John
Ho, Lachlan Murdoch,
Greg Roebuck and Square Peg
Capital.
Logo -
http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/468258/ROKT_Bruce_Buchanan.jpg
ROKT will use the investment to accelerate development of its
market-leading transaction marketing technology, expand its
management ranks, ramp up international market growth as well as
acquire strategic assets that will strengthen its value
proposition.
"ROKT is uniquely positioned at the intersection of digital
media and commerce," said John Ho,
Janchor Partners' Chief Investment Officer. "Both areas are showing
enormous growth, with e-commerce on track to be a $3 trillion market in the next few years and
performance-driven digital media achieving double digit growth.
ROKT is right in the middle of these two areas of immense growth.
Its own growth potential is significant and I remain confident it
will be fully realized."
"This funding round is all about stepping up the speed and scale
of ROKT's growth. It comes at a time when ROKT is experiencing
dramatic momentum worldwide," said Bruce
Buchanan, ROKT's CEO. "It gives us the opportunity to build
upon our dynamism as well as achieve more and better outcomes for
our clients and partners.
"Over the past year ROKT expanded its presence in the United States, growing revenue there
eightfold, entered the Canadian market, launched operations in the
United Kingdom, made key hires for
critical roles and increased headcount in all segments of the
business. ROKT is a very different company from just a couple of
years ago when we operated out of a single office in the suburbs of
Sydney," Buchanan said.
ROKT has worked with over 2,000 clients, including such brands
as eBay, Ticketmaster, Expedia, Hotels.com, Time Inc, Groupon,
Dominos and Emirates to help achieve better online commerce results
by improving customer engagements and delivering meaningful native
monetization. ROKT also works with thousands of performance
marketers focused on acquiring large numbers of new customers at
the point of transaction. The company's solutions deliver
consistent results for its clients. For example, ROKT improved
GrubHub's conversion rate 600% among the food delivery service's
key demographics.
"We are pleased to be supporting and working with the
experienced and high quality ROKT team as they bring the benefits
of its platform to more advertisers and ecommerce businesses as
part of their global expansion," said Ben
Wong, a Moelis Managing Director.
Time Inc. became an investor in this round after its Synapse
unit worked with ROKT over the past 12 months driving significant
business results.
"Time Inc. is pleased to invest in ROKT. As a customer, we have
had a great experience with ROKT's technology and platform and have
seen, first-hand, its ability to impact the marketplace. From the
perspective of a customer, the ROKT partnership is a success for
us," said Erik Moreno, Time Inc.'s
Executive Vice President and President, Corporate Development, New
Ventures & Investments. "We look forward to working with Bruce
and his team as they execute on their vision for the future of
digital marketing and commerce."
ROKT's approach to consumer engagement centers on treating the
individual with respect and courtesy. Interactions won't occur
unless and until the consumer consents to welcome a brand into
her/his world. While this isn't a new concept, ROKT has been able
to yield 3 times greater returns than other digital channels.
"Since our investment in ROKT we have seen the business improve
on every dimension: the product has evolved significantly; the
value delivered to advertisers and e-commerce operators has grown
dramatically; and, most importantly, Bruce's team has gone from
strength-to-strength," said Paul
Bassat, Square Peg's Co-founder. "Our participation in this
round reaffirms our belief that ROKT is on a path to truly alter
how brands acquire and engage with customers in a way that will
yield unmatched results."
About ROKT
ROKT sits at the intersection of digital
media and commerce. The company brings significant benefits to
e-commerce operators by applying its algorithmic engine to optimize
customers' journeys as well as monetize underutilized portions of
their websites. ROKT uses its unique position in the customer
journey and set of capabilities to help performance marketers
engage with and acquire customers at scale when they're most
receptive, just as they've made an online transaction from a
trusted brand.
ROKT has offices in New York,
Los Angeles, London, Sydney, Melbourne, Auckland and Singapore. For more
information, please email info@rokt.com or visit ROKT.com.
About Moelis & Company
Moelis & Company is a
leading global independent investment bank that provides innovative
strategic advice and solutions to a diverse client base, including
corporations, governments and financial sponsors. The Firm assists
its clients in achieving their strategic goals by offering
comprehensive integrated financial advisory services across all
major industry sectors. Moelis & Company's experienced
professionals advise clients on their most critical decisions,
including mergers and acquisitions, recapitalizations and
restructurings, capital markets transactions, and other corporate
finance matters. The Firm serves its clients with about 650
employees based in 17 offices in North and South America, Europe, the Middle
East, Asia and Australia. For further information, please
visit: www.moelis.com.
About Time Inc.
ABOUT TIME INC.
Time Inc. (NYSE: TIME) is a leading content company that engages
over 150 million consumers every month through our portfolio of
premium brands across platforms. By combining our distinctive
content with our proprietary data and people-based targeting, we
offer highly differentiated end-to-end solutions to marketers
across the multimedia landscape. Our influential brands include
People, Time, Fortune, Sports Illustrated, InStyle, Real Simple and
Southern Living, as well as more than 50 diverse titles in the
United Kingdom. Time Inc. has been
extending the power of our brands through various acquisitions and
investments, including Viant, an advertising technology firm with a
specialized people-based marketing platform; The Foundry, Time
Inc.'s creative lab and content studio; and the People
Entertainment Weekly Network (PEN). The company is also home to
celebrated events, such as the Time 100, Fortune Most Powerful
Women, People's Sexiest Man Alive, Sports Illustrated's
Sportsperson of the Year, the Essence Festival and the Food &
Wine Classic in Aspen.
About Square Peg
Square Peg Capital is a venture
capital firm that invests in outstanding teams building tomorrow's
technology leaders. Its investing activities focus on Australia and New
Zealand, South East Asia
and Israel. For more information
please visit. www.squarepegcap.com.