Hootsuite announced today that it has raised another $60 million in funding and that it has acquired social telephony firm Zeetl, another Vancouver-area startup.
Zeetl’s solution is designed for customer service department that are watching social media for brand mentions and direct service requests. It allows a service rep to simply send a web link to a user that provides them with a phone number and Skype ID so they can take the conversation offline and resolve it using voice communication. Zeetl had an incubation experience at Vancouver’s GrowLab.
The links created by Zeetl can only be accessed by the intended recipient, so they can be shared publicly on social networks without need to send a direct message. Each customer gets a unique number or Skype ID and can access a local phone number as well. On the other end, the customer service agent sees the original post that the customer made to social media regarding the company. Once a call is complete, that unique number can be released and used again in the future.
Zeetl was created by co-founders Stanislav Korsei and Alexander Zadorozhniy.
As for the funding the investors involved were existing HootSuite investors Accel Partners, Insight Venture Partners and OMERS Ventures. New investor Silocon Valley Bank also came to the table. Hootsuite’s total fundraising to date is now $250 million.