BrightEdge closes $42.8M to guide marketers through dark seas of data

Yet another big data-meets-marketing startup has hauled in a hefty round of funding.

BrightEdge has raised $42.8 million in its fourth round of funding. The company provides an enterprise grade SEO platform that applies big data analytics to marketing efforts.

Founder and CEO Jim Yu said in an interview with VentureBeat that the S3 platform does three core things. It visualizes collected data in customizable dashboards with drag and drop charts. The engine indexes information from websites, search engines, mobile devices, and social media and “glues” it back together for an overall view of relevant activity.

It then generates recommendations in a to-do list of actions that marketers can take to drive impact. Third, BrightEdge has also built a strategy engine that looks at how competitors are performing in different segments and create a “market map.” Using predictive analytics, businesses can build forecasts to help understand and prioritize what drives the most impact.

“We now live in a world where brands are becoming publishers and consumers are influencers and content is getting created, shared, and accessed at a massive scale.” Yu said. “This is one of the biggest changes that has happened in modern business and marketing is the first place where you will see that impact. Marketers have to think more like scientists than artist and we believe there is a massive chance there.”

Yu founded BrightEdge six years ago as a marketing platform to help companies measure the value of their content across multiple digital channels. 90 percent of the world’s data has been created in the last two years alone, and BrightEdge got an early start on making this data accessible to people who can use it to impact their business.

Now BrightEdge works with over 6000 brands and 600 direct clients, including 30 percent of the Fortune 100. Clients include Microsoft, 3M, Nike, Marriott, and Performics. Yu said the technology serves 9 of the top 10 largest hotel groups, 7 of the top 10 online retailers, and 7 of the top 10 technology companies. Yu said this is because the platform drives “transformative results” in traffic and revenue.

The company is growing fast and this funding will go towards scaling and expanding the business, with a focus on international markets. It will also fuel product innovation. Insight Venture Partners led this round, with participation from existing investors Intel Capital, Battery Ventures, Altos Ventures and Illuminate Ventures.

BrightEdge said it is taking on a $12 billion market. Using big data to make intelligent business decisions is ubiquitous now as companies of all sizes realize the benefits of funneling their time, money, and resources into areas where it can drive returns on investment (ROI). Last week Brand Networks closed $68 million for its enterprise software for social media marketing and Marketo, which makes marketing automation software solutions, went public in March 2013 after raising a total of $108 million. Eloqua and HubSpot are other big time competitors.

BrightEdge is based in San Mateo, California. It has raised $61.9 million to date.