Canada-based applications provider HootSuite has raised C$3m ($3m) in debt bridge financing from investors in its previous C$1.95m equity round that closed in December 2009, including Hearst Interactive Media, the corporate venturing unit of US media group Hearst.
Venture capital firm Blumberg Capital and angel Geoff Entress, also reinvested with new participation from Millennium Technology Ventures.
As well as business development, the debt will also allow HootSuite to acquire TwapperKeeper.com. This social storage and reporting tool is used heavily by academic organizations, conference leaders, marketing departments, customer service teams and PR companies to archive, track, monitor, and analyze Twitter data.
The TwapperKeeper deal follows previous acquisitions of SwiftApp (now HootSuite for Android), and TwitterBar (now HootBar),
Less than one year after launching its Freemium business model, HootSuite said it was a profitable, cashflow-positive company with an C$8m run rate (estimated C$10m by end of year) from its 2.5 million users.