Closely lets you spy on your competitors … and steal a few moves

Closely helps small businesses keep track of the competition with Perch, a social monitoring app for iOS and Android.

Soon it’ll help them sell to each other, too.

Closely has raised $3 million in new funding, which it intends to use to build out its marketplace platform for small to medium businesses, the company announced today.

In addition to enabling companies to see their competitors’ social chatter — posts, reviews, promotions, etc. — Perch also recommends technology products to business owners based on the data it collects about its competitors’ operations.

Closely is building a business-to-business marketplace on top of that recommendation engine. It’s already signed deals with GoDaddy, Constant Contact, and DudaMobile, and it intends to use the new funding to bring more vendors on board, according to “hyperlocal” business publication Street Fight.

“The team at Closely is addressing a universal challenge for marketing tech providers and that is simply that no one is getting the attention of the SMBs,” said Joe Zell, general partner at Closely investor Grotech Ventures, in a statement.

Grotech Ventures led Closely’s funding, which also featured participation from Steadfast Venture Capital and CNF Investments.

Check out the video below for a better look at Closely’s Perch app.