VIRURL, a Santa Monica, CA-based viral advertising platform that allows brands and media owners to instantly launch viral campaigns by incentivizing Web users to share links with their friends, has closed a $1.2m seed funding round and launched its public beta.
The round was led by Tice Capital LLC, and Los Angeles Syndicate of Technology, with particiaption from other angel investors.
In conjunction with the funding, Merrill Brown, a former MSNBC.com’s founding editor and a New York-based consultant and advisor, has joined the company as chairman. VIRURL has also engaged Indomitable Entertainment, a diversified media and entertainment company, for assistance with developing strategic partnerships and engaging customers and clients. Dominic Ianno, CEO of Indomitable, will join the board, and Boyd Bishop, Indomitable’s head of digital media, will work closely with VIRURL on its business development efforts.
Led by CEO and co-founder Francisco Diaz-Mitoma, the company provides a tool that enables brands to leverage Web users to begin the online social sharing process. Marketers visit VIRURL.com, create an account, upload their own budget, determine a cost-per-click, and post their content or marketing opportunity to the site. VIRURL users are then compensated for each click they can generate to that content, whether via email, Twitter, Facebook, or any approved social vehicle. All revenue from clicks originating on Facebook will be donated to the charity of each user’s choice.
Launched in alpha version in late 2011, VIRURL today serves more than 40,000 registered users with over 1,000 content marketers who have applied for access to advertise on the platform.
The company is currently hiring (https://virurl.com/pages/jobs).
FinSMEs
09/05/2012