Mention Me, the London headquartered referral marketing platform, has raised $7m, in a round led by Eight Roads Ventures.
Mention Me, which has been bootstrapped until now, has experienced rapid growth in the past three years. With over 300 leading brands including FarFetch, Ovo Energy, Ted Baker and ZipCar, they are now a team of nearly 50 people. Currently operating referral programmes in 16 languages, they plan to use this funding to accelerate growth in the UK, expand their footprint internationally, and broaden their platform with additional services.
GDPR fears, coupled with acquisition costs continuing to rise on platforms such as Facebook and Google, means consumer brands are recognising the value of using word-of-mouth referrals to attract new customers. Referral marketing, if done well, can drive 10-30 per cent of a brand’s new customer acquisition, whilst also increasing engagement with existing customers.
Mention Me was founded by experienced by digital executives and repeat entrepreneurs Andy Cockburn and Tim Boughton, who met at Homeaway where they were UK MD and European CTO respectively before its $3bn IPO on the NASDAQ.
Referral marketing programmes have helped build some of the world’s most recognisable businesses from Uber to Airbnb. However to date only a few brands have been able to create effective referral marketing schemes. Mention Me’s transparent and easy-to-use platform makes these world-class capabilities available to all. It provides the technology for its clients to create, AB test, iterate and measure referral campaigns. Referees are quickly rewarded through the platform, which alerts brands to any malicious behaviour that could increase the cost of campaigns.
“Customer referral programmes have emerged as a key channel in the developing world of Trust Marketing. Trust Marketing encourages businesses to actively build up trust with their customers and use it to create long term value. Looking to the future, we know that the principle which makes referral so powerful – the trust built on a personal connection – can be used to enhance marketing more generally too.
We’re incredibly proud to have built Mention Me to be a profitable, fast growing business with a fantastic team over the last five years. We’re excited to now be at a point where the next phase of growth requires a steep increase in investment. Eight Roads are the perfect partner for the next stage of our journey, with their in-house expertise and global network.” Andy Cockburn, CEO of Mention Me
Alston Zecha, Principal at Eight Roads Ventures, will join the Board and said:
“At a time when brand trust is low and customer acquisition costs on other platforms are high, Mention Me puts power back in the hands of the customer by rewarding them for referrals. We’ve been excited to see how the platform has allowed brands to create meaningful relationships with existing customers and to attract new customers. Andy, Tim and the team have the right blend of experience in large organisations and entrepreneurial spirit to build a leader in this emerging marketing category. They have ambitious growth plans and we look forward to working alongside them as they scale-up and continue on their journey to become the go-to destination for Trust Marketing.”