Audiense is the leading audience intelligence platform putting consumer segmentation and cultural insights at the center of any strategy. Powered by social data, Audiense helps brands and agencies create better connections by providing critical insights into their audiences.
In 2012, Carlos Serra joined Audiense as their Corporate Development Director. Prior to Audiense, he was an investment banker focused on the tech industry. Whilst doing a tech sector review, he met founders Javier Buron and Alfredo Artiles, and was brought on to grow the company to be the market leader in audience intelligence. A large part of this role was helping to secure funding to continue to build out and market their platform.
Prior to Capchase, Audiense had used a number of different financing options—including other alternatives to traditional venture capital or debt—but had found no all-encompassing solution to meet their needs.”Even when we could obtain funding based on our revenue, we were often told that our business model was too complex for lenders to feel comfortable extending funding,” said Serra.
The lenders they spoke with specialized in underwriting ecommerce business models and preferred to extend funding to companies who had hard assets as collateral. And even when Audiense managed to obtain an unsecured loan against their ARR, they had no confidence they would be able to gain additional funding more as they continued to grow their revenue.
The need to find a financing provider who would grow alongside them, offer transparency into their funding terms, and allow them to allocate funds as they saw best, is why Audiense ultimately partnered with Capchase.
Doubling revenue through transparency and flexible funding
When Audiense was looking for a new source of funding, they had very particular stipulations about how they wanted to use their capital. Their goal was to consolidate and extend a number of existing liabilities in order to continue on their current growth trajectory and extend their runway.
They were evaluating Capchase alongside another revenue-based financing provider who was offering a similar amount of money upfront. It was crucial that their provider was able to provide a clear vision into how they would work and grow together—that certainty and transparency were nonnegotiable. It was also essential that their funding provider could offer additional financing as their revenue grew.
As a result, Audiense was able to meet their revenue goals because their targets were clearly outlined by Capchase. Since partnering with Capchase, Audiense has over doubled their ARR from $3 million to $10 million. They’ve additionally increased their runway from 3.77 months to 15.38 months and grown their LTV to CAC from 2.23 to 16.48.
Having a Growth Advisor, based in Europe, was also a factor in Audiense's decision to work with Capchase. Being able to talk to an expert any time about any questions or concerns was yet another example of Capchase’s commitment to open communication and transparency.
“The way I see it, you’re almost married to your funding partner,” Serra explained. “That trust is of huge value. After our third drawdown with Capchase, we’ve had the same level of transparency each time, and there have been no surprises, which is a good thing!”
The freedom to spend funding as they see fit
Audiense knows that spending money on building partnerships and improving their solutions, are consistent ways to build their business and fast-track their growth.
“We already knew that we wanted to double down on building a development team so we could open new partnerships that would be key for hyper-growth,” said Serra. “When looking for a financing partner, we needed one who would be open to us using our working capital for these types of investments.”
Since Audiense started working with Capchase, they’ve used their funding to refinance shareholder loans, improve their advertising, and launch their first partnership. “Capchase was very flexible with how we used the money, provided we met the criteria for lending," said Serra.
These factors have allowed Audiense to double their logo retention and ensure they are in the strongest financial position for their next raise.
And because they were able to achieve a flexible funding plan through Capchase to meet their many initiatives, they were able to free up precious time to focus on what matters most—scaling their business.
Having the authority to make crucial business decisions—like acquisitions
In 2022, Audiense acquired SOPRISM, a digital consumer insight tool. This acquisition will allow Audiense to provide even greater audience insights across social media by adding an additional layer of analytics, a new understanding of segmentation, demographics and interests based on META, and APIs for collecting and structuring social data above and beyond Twitter’s APIs. This positions Audiense as a unique player in the market that allows companies to understand the cultural and sociodemographic data of their audiences from any channel, including first party data. “We are now, by far, the most complete platform to complement traditional consumer research based on surveys or other traditional methods,” said Serra.
Securing their funding through Capchase for over a year had a considerable impact in Audiense’s acquisition decision. “Understanding that we have a stable, long-term backer that’s helping us achieve our growth initiatives gave us the confidence to merge and grow these two companies together,” said Serra. “We’re confident and excited to see the impact of this acquisition on our business in the future.”
To learn how Capchase can help you grow and scale your business, get in touch with our team.
