Leading growth equity firm Spectrum Equity has acquired a majority stake in link management platform Bitly, as part of its latest $63 million funding round.
Founded in 2008, Bitly began as a platform which provided a handy link shortening tool primarily for Twitter users, and has evolved into a business which offers link shortening as a way to provide greater transparency, control and data ownership to its business customers. The New York City-based startup’s products include branded short links, analytics on the identity and activity of whoever is interacting with links and device-aware mobile deep links designed to drive app installs and re-engagement.
Bitly says it will use the new capital to expand its link management capabilities from a strong foothold in enterprise marketing to an increasingly diverse set of customers and teams. Currently, the company says its products are leveraged by millions of customers, including nearly three quarters of the Fortune 500, who have collectively created over 32 billion links since the company’s inception. Bitly is confident that a partnership with Spectrum, who has worked with SaaS companies such as Ancestry.com, SurveyMonkey and Lucid Software, will help the tech startup expand its tools and services.
As part of the deal, Spectrum Equity’s Pete Jensen and Parag Khandelwal will join Bitly Chief Executive Office Mark Josephson on the board of directors.
“Bitly is one of the strongest brands on the internet and has achieved a level of ubiquity rarely seen,” said Jensen. “Mark and the leadership team at Bitly have done a great job turning the company from ‘free only’ to a fast growing and profitable freemium SaaS company. We’re excited to provide the capital, support and experience to help scale the business to the next level.”
