Why we invested in Promoboxx

Last week we announced our participation in a new round of funding for Boston-based Promoboxx. We found the team’s deep industry knowledge and focus, combined with the sizeable opportunity in front of them, to be very compelling. What further differentiates Promoboxx is its impressive success generated from only a modest seed round of capital and organic revenue growth. We are very excited to help them expand their reach and accelerate their growth as they move forward.  We are also very pleased to have another strong and experienced venture firm as a co-investor with Grotech Ventures.

A much needed “bridge” between large brands and their retail stores, we believe Promoboxx is ideally positioned to help both sides drive more effective, cutting edge marketing and advertising campaigns in the rapidly changing world of local marketing. Working with Promoboxx, brands are providing new tools to make what has traditionally been a very cumbersome and ad hoc process, a far easier task, with brand consistency across all channels. The Promoboxx platform allows the brand’s retailers to leverage high quality branded content and campaigns, by enabling customization for the local market, all with just a few simple clicks.  As a shared platform, Promoboxx provides detailed reporting and analysis, offering insights into what works and what doesn’t – data that can be utilized during the next series of campaigns.

The marketing world is changing at a fast clip, as consumers shift their attention from print, TV, radio etc., to social, mobile, and other new forms of media, making it very hard for retailers to keep up. Promoboxx incorporates all of these new channels into one platform and makes it simple to launch new campaigns fueled by branded content and resources directly from their brands.

During our diligence process and again at last week’s Aligned conference, we spoke with Promoboxx brands and retailers. They are avid fans, letting us know the platform is a “godsend,” designed specifically for the brand/retailer model, making their jobs much easier.  The retailers are very eager to see more and more of their brands take advantage of the Promoboxx platform as they are able to use one platform for multiple brands and it has become their preferred marketing platform. In less than a year, Promoboxx has received over 8,500 requests for 1,500 additional brands to be added by 1,100 retailers that already use Promoboxx. This was very compelling feedback and data.

We were also very impressed with CEO Ben Carcio and his team.  Many of the senior leadership team have experienced the problem themselves, so they have a deep understanding of how to solve it, and are passionate about working with brands and retailers. They are also very thoughtful about growing their business and have consciously waited to raise additional capital until the stars were properly aligned, as covered in this piece by BostonInno last week. The stars, and the brands and retailers, are now aligned with Promoboxx. Let’s go!