PromoRepublic is an SMM automation service for small businesses and marketing specialists. It offers the customers one of the largest libraries of posts and templates, drag-and-drop graphics editor and content calendar together with a smart analytics tool.
The startup raised €500K in a form of a convertible loan from Ukrainian and Finnish investors. There were two parts in the round. The first one happened in December 2015 and brought €100K from Finnish investor Pekka Koskinen, Vendep venture fund, and Tekes, the Finnish Funding Agency for Innovation.
PromoRepublic spent the money to get prepared for entry into the US market: they conducted a thorough demand analysis and tested distribution channels, and made several business trips to America. Following the feedback from local entrepreneurs, partners and customers, PromoRepublic chose freelance marketing specialists as the target audience for the product. They also decided to focus on the development of its main service: creating social media content based on historical facts, holidays, local events and current trends. Shortly after the launch, PromoRepublic already has more than a hundred of paying users. The monthly subscription starts at $197.
Holiday marketing in action. Image credit
The second part of the round was closed last week. This time, PromoRepublic raised €400K from its lead investors - Ukrainian venture fund Digital Future and Finnish investor Sampo Parkkinen, with participation from the co-investors in the previous tranche. Oleksii Vitchenko, the CEO of Digital Future, said they decided to invest in the product after having “tried in on”: their marketing team tested the tool and said that this solution that optimizes their day-to-day tasks.
If the investors are satisfied with the quality of the customers and the startup reaches a certain level of profitability, the company will receive the follow-up financing up to €1.25M from Tekes for marketing and sales.
PromoRepublic plans to integrate the product with leading sales and marketing tools such as Hootsuite, HubSpot, Buffer.
