Moontoast nabs $6M to grow its social commerce service (exclusive)
Summary
Moontoast, a startup that specializes in turning social media influence into revenue, has closed a new $6 million round of funding, the company tells VentureBeat. The company primarily does this by letting its clients embed a “distributed store” into a social network status update or third-party website (Walmart, Target or an affiliate blog). The process has proved very successful so far — netting early clients (such as country artists Reba McEntire and Taylor Swift) upwards of $10,000 an hour after posting via Facebook, according to the company. “We believe social commerce is a very new market with a lot of untapped potential,” Moontoast CEO Blair Heavey told VentureBeat in a recent interview.”The new funding will allow us to enhance the distributed store and analytics suites as well as grow new aspects of the services like game commerce.” The new funding will allow Moontoast to grow two other aspects of its service: a set of analytical tools designed to identify and maximize sales and a new “gamification” feature that will maximize sales by engaging a client’s social media following through games, puzzles, quizzes and more, Heavey said. Its early investors include country music artists such as co-founder Bucky Baxter, Wynona Judd, Vince Gill, Amy Grant and Kip Winger.