Partnerize, the leading provider of partner marketing software for global brands, today announced $9M in additional investment, at a $127M valuation. The round was led by GP Bullhound, a leading global technology advisory and investment firm. The proceeds will be used for additional sales and marketing expansion and support further growth and development of a global partner ecosystem centered on the company’s SaaS partner management platform, with a small portion to be used for secondary purposes.
Partnerize joins existing GP Bullhound portfolio companies, including Slack, Spotify, Unity, and Tradeshift, on the list of fast-growing, global businesses. This investment is a strong affirmation of the opportunity ahead as so many brands today are choosing Partnerize for their global partner management.
“GP Bullhound has been a great advocate for us over the years and they share our belief in the potential for partnerships at global scale,” said Mal Cowley, Partnerize Co-founder and CEO. “This additional funding enables us to invest aggressively in our platform, further expanding our technological lead, as we make partnerships a central component of every marketer’s strategy. It also enables us to invest in acquiring more clients, which in turn adds new partner relationships.”
Founded in 2010, Partnerize has expanded to eight offices worldwide, with over 200 employees. The firm has built an ecosystem of more than 325,000 companies worldwide, including more than 300 leading global brands.
“We are excited to back Partnerize in its next stage of growth. Having known Mal and the team for many years, we have seen the business going from strength to strength. The company was able to build a strong moat on the back of a long list of blue-chip customers who have on-boarded their partners onto the platform and are now in direct control of their own marketing campaigns,” said Hugh Campbell, Cofounder and Managing Partner of GP Bullhound.
This summer, Partnerize introduced a series of product enhancements to its flagship SaaS partner management platform. They also re-branded to reflect their strategic focus on facilitating brand partnerships of all types, including channel partnerships, loyalty partnerships, influencers, referral partnerships, brand-to-brand alliances and affiliate marketing. The company was just awarded the Best Performance Marketing Technology award for 2018 at the International Performance Marketing Awards.
“Partner marketing is the highest return on marketing investment channel for every marketer, generating 10-14X ROAS on the first purchase, and its payment terms are much better than other forms of advertising,” said Ian Sigalow, Co-Founder and Partner at Greycroft. “We initially funded Partnerize in 2011 because we saw the opportunity to empower marketers to grow this channel, and in the process build real barriers to entry. Partnerize has succeeded on that vision for many of the world’s most successful brands.”
