Kinetic Social (http://www.kineticsocial.com), a leading social media advertising technology company serving Fortune 500 brands and agencies, announced today that it has raised $8 million in an initial close of a Series A round of financing. The pact was structured with a companion venture term debt facility.

The equity financing was provided by Cincinnati-based Blue Chip Venture Company (BCVC), and the venture debt financing was provided by Chicago-based Gibraltar Business Capital. This development will further spur Kinetic's momentum and growth and will fuel new enhancement of its distinct market position. Kinetic serves the high growth segment of the social media advertising market with premium targeted social marketing management and optimization.

The company is also actively considering several offers to expand its Series A transaction with additional equity capital. The venture debt from Gibraltar comes on top of a revolving working capital facility provided in mid-2012. The company was launched in 2011 with early stage capital provided by RBC Bank.

"Blue Chip has been watching this market for over two years now, waiting for the leader to emerge, and we feel Kinetic Social is that leader," said Mark Wright , Managing Director of Blue Chip. "Kinetic is unique in a number of ways: it is only one of several companies that can optimize social advertising campaigns across all the major social networks, and it has a distinct capability to marry that advertising with display and mobile campaigns; its proprietary data-based technique for enhancing its target marketing capabilities is entirely unique and is widely regarded as the most advanced in the market."

The funding from this Series A transaction will specifically support product extensions centered on Kinetic's patent-pending core technologies including its machine learning optimization engine, its cross-channel data trend and analytics engine, and its self-service client platform.

"We are honored to partner with Blue Chip and equally proud that Gibraltar has significantly enhanced its investment in Kinetic based on our results," said Don Mathis , Kinetic's CEO and a Co-Founder. "The people who make up Kinetic are an extraordinary crew, and we look forward to leveraging this robust capital base on behalf of our world-class client roster."

"I came on board at Kinetic because unlike its competitors, it has a data-centric vision that manifests itself in the marketplace as a distinct combination of technology, strategy and service," said Carree L Syrek, Kinetic Social's Chief Strategy Officer, who joined the company in late 2011 from WPP's Mindshare.

About Kinetic Social:

Kinetic delivers cross-platform marketing solutions at scale by integrating social media via comprehensive product offerings across every major social media venue and beyond. Kinetic layers a holistic, leading edge digital advertising expertise on top of an intelligent analytics, measurement and media optimization platform. Kinetic serves a world-class, Fortune 500 client roster.

Kinetic's core technology focus is to build a nexus of "Big Data" and social media. Its machine learning platform is architected to integrate social, trend and other proprietary data to achieve cross-platform effectiveness. Kinetic deploys a patent-pending statistical optimizer, anchored by advanced predictive modeling algorithms.

Kinetic provides an unparalleled ability to help its clients fine tune their digital media mix, integrating at the data-stream level to reach client target audiences across social media platforms and throughout the digital spectrum.

About Blue Chip Venture Company:

Blue Chip Venture Company is a Cincinnati-based venture capital firm with $600 million under management and investments in over 100 companies located throughout the United States. As a partner with management, Blue Chip invests in and helps management build privately-owned growth companies. The firm invests in a range of industries with a concentration on enterprise software, healthcare, technology infrastructure, and marketing and media services. Investments are made in companies that are in the early and growth stages as well as in companies that are more established and require expansion or acquisition capital.

About Gibraltar Business Capital:

Gibraltar Business Capital, based in Chicago, IL, is a well capitalized lender serving small and middle market companies throughout the entire US with annual sales of $5 Million to $100 Million.

The Gibraltar team is comprised of highly experienced lenders whose lean organizational structure allows for swift and efficient decision making and execution, often the most critical elements to a potential borrower. The Gibraltar team prides itself on flexibility and creativity in providing short-term working capital solutions for companies in almost every industry.