Customer experience management platform Reputation closes on $150M funding

The aptly named online reputation management firm Reputation.com Inc. has a lot more money in the bank today after closing on a $150 million minority growth funding round.

The round was led by Marlin Equity Partners, a global investment firm with more than $8.1 billion worth of capital commitments under management.

Reputation has built a cloud-based Reputation Experience Management platform that helps companies to measure and improve customer sentiment around their brands. Its platform includes tools to assess customer sentiment by sending surveys to users, extracting data from online reviews and social media. It also provides a range of tools for companies to improve their brands’ image in cases where they may have received negative publicity.

Last year, Reputation acquired the data analytics startup Nuvi Inc. to boost its capabilities in social media analytics. With Nuvi’s technology, Reputation can scan millions of social media posts for brand mentions and feed those results into a dashboard that measures customer attitudes to advertising campaigns and new products. In addition, Reputation also allows companies to monitor the popularity of their competitors and track emerging trends in their industry, using the same tools.

Reputation says its platform has proven popular with “thousands of customers,” among them some big names such as General Motors Co., Kaiser Permanente, Greystar Worldwide LLC and AutoNation.com Inc. Indeed, the company also announced today that it has surpassed $100 million in annual recurring revenue, a key milestone for any software-as-a-service company.

Reputation Chief Executive Joe Fuca said the customer experience industry is thriving as businesses understand more than ever the need to reach, attract and retain customers. He said today’s investment will be used to drive new product innovation, expand the company’s growing customer and partner ecosystem and also fuel international expansion.

“Marlin’s investment will allow us to fuel our growth as we expand our leadership in a rapidly growing market,” Fuca added.

Marlin Equity Partners’ senior managing director Nick Kaiser said he’s backing Reputation to solidify its leading position in the customer feedback market. “Its seamless platform blends consumer ratings and reviews, social listening and survey technologies, which differentiates the company from its competitors,” he explained.

Image: Reputation