Crowd Factory

About Crowd Factory

Crowd Factory, Inc. operated as a social campaign management platform, originating in San Francisco, California. The company was established in 2009 by Alexander Mouldovan. It secured a total of $12 million in funding over two rounds. The initial Series A round in March 2009 raised $5.54 million, followed by a second Series A round on February 1, 2011, which brought in an additional $6.5 million. Key investors included Storm Ventures, Peninsula Ventures, and Hummer Winblad Venture Partners (HWVP).

The firm provided a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform tailored for enterprises to manage social marketing campaigns. Its core business involved offering a suite of social marketing applications complemented by analytics and dashboards. This enabled marketers to deploy and embed social applications and messages across various digital channels, such as Facebook Pages, Twitter feeds, websites, and emails. A key function of the platform was to encourage and track social sharing, thereby measuring the reach and impact of campaigns to provide direct feedback on the return on investment of social marketing efforts. The platform also featured a social database repository, allowing clients to identify and monitor influential individuals. Notable customers included major brands like HBO, Sony, Universal, and McAfee.

The business model was centered on providing tools for marketers to amplify word-of-mouth marketing, expand their marketing databases with social profiles, and ultimately attract new customers. On April 18, 2012, Crowd Factory was acquired by Marketo, a marketing automation company, for an undisclosed amount. This acquisition was aimed at integrating Crowd Factory's social marketing capabilities directly into Marketo's automation platform, breaking down the typical silos between social marketing and broader marketing initiatives. Following the acquisition, Crowd Factory's technology was integrated into Marketo's offerings, and the company ceased to operate as an independent entity.