White-label social network developer KickApps on Tuesday said it had secured an $11
million Series B round from SoftBank Capital and a group of previous investors.
KickApps, whose technology helps website operators incorporate social
networking features into their sites, is one of a growing number of
white-label developers hoping to cash in on the social network craze.
New York City-based KickApps has often been compared with Palo Alto, California-based Ning, but KickApps is trying to set itself apart from the crowd by catering to enterprise customers.
The company also provides branded widgets—tiny
applications that play video and audio and display photos—designed with the
look and feel of a publisher’s website.
Santo
Politi, founder and general partner at Spark Capital, a key backer of KickApps,
said the company decided to focus on enterprise opportunities rather than
individual consumers in hopes of building a bigger business.
“We thought that
individuals building a personal social network might be great, but it might not
be that scaleable, whereas with enterprise you can build a much more leverageable,
defensible, scalable business in that market,” he said.
To that
end KickApps, which was founded in 2005, has provided tools to more than 5,000
sites. The company offers its developer platform and hosting for free, but
makes money by placing and drawing revenue from a certain number of ads that run
next to their widgets on a publisher’s site. Publishers such as Autobytel that
make the bulk of their profit from advertising can also choose to buy KickApps
out of its advertising shares.
The
KickApps platform is currently only available in English, though it will soon
be offered in several Western-based languages, according to KickApps CEO Alex
Blum. Later this year the company will release a version of its tools in
several Asian languages.
KickApps’
Series A round of $7 million was led by Spark Capital and also included Prism
VentureWorks and Jarl Mohn.