Social media management service HootSuite is looking to spread their wings outside of North America, opening a new office in London, England earlier this week. The Vancouver based company is one of the largest in an increasingly important field; the dashboard style handling of social media for the purpose of brand management. Since its inception in 2008, the company has acquired some impressive clientele including McDonalds, PepsiCo and Sony Music amongst others.
The expansion follows HootSuite’s latest funding round of $20M in March of this year by way of OMERS Ventures, valuing the company at $200M. That valuation has likely gone up since then given what has been happening in the industry, mainly Salesforce’s $800M acquisition of Buddy Media earlier this month.
According to HootSuite’s blog, they will be looking to hire 24 people for their London office in the fields of sales and support. The goal is to double this to 50 individuals by the end of 2013. The company currently employs 150 people, the majority of which are in Vancouver.
A good deal of this year has been spent integrating more social media and networking sites into their service, adding Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr and most recently Google+. Clients are given the choice between free and paid versions of its service, allowing them to attract a client list of 3.5 million and growing.
According to CEO Ryan Holmes, London was selected due to the city’s tech infrastructure as well as their “digital culture”. It also exposes the company to a slew of agencies and companies that are hungry for their service and expertise. London boasts the headquarters of 85 of the world’s top 100 interactive agencies.
HootSuite made the announcement and move with a fair deal of fanfair, including an announcement from Virgin founder Sir Richard Branson and a warm welcome from London’s Mayor Boris Johnson. Those looking to work for HootSuite across the pond can apply at the company’s Careers page.
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