Main Street Hub, the Austin based 'do-it-for you' marketing platform for local businesses, today announced the closing of a $14 million Series B equity financing round led by Bessemer Venture Partners (BVP) with participation from existing investors, including Harrison Metal Capital. The funding will be used to further develop Main Street Hub's technology and content operations, and to expand its sales presence in Austin, San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles. With this round, the Local CRM leader has raised more than $20 million of equity financing to date.

'Keeping up with shifts in social media and other ways to connect with customers online is a full time job, but it's not something most local businesses are staffed to manage. Main Street Hub makes the process painless and rewarding with a full service 'do-it-for-you' SaaS marketing platform that helps local businesses through the entire marketing funnel with a combination of people, data and innovative technology,' said co-founder and co-CEO Andrew Allison.

For a low monthly fee Main Street Hub will create and manage the social media presence of local businesses (on Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, Google+, Foursquare, and TripAdvisor), build a mobile-friendly landing page, and communicate directly with customers through email marketing that uses customized viral, social content. The result is a powerful CRM for local businesses that helps them find new customers, build lasting relationships with loyal ones, and generate referrals.

Main Street Hub's 'do-it-for-you' approach starts with a dedicated account manager who works closely with each customer to understand their voice and business goals. The Main Street Hub team then leverages the company's proprietary technology and vast amounts of industry-specific data to market local businesses across social media, web and email-creating and maintaining direct relationships with customers.

It's a concept that's caught on: Since launching in February of 2010, Main Street Hub has close to 3,000 customers in all 50 states and a team of 175 employees across four offices. In that time, they have authored more than a million messages across social media, customer landing pages and email. And the company will continue to grow to meet the needs of the market: Local media ad spend is estimated to be close to $133 billion, with 20% of that being spent on digital/online, and that number is expected to grow 27% over the next 4 years.1

'At BVP, we're sensing a shift in power as technology levels the playing field for smaller companies and gives them access to solutions and platforms that were previously only afforded by large box stores and behemoths. Main Street Hub will be a key player in this: They make it possible for local businesses to leverage every channel and engage directly with their customers with a tailored approach that doesn't require any change of behavior for the merchant or their customers,' said Rob Stavis, partner at BVP. 'In backing Main Street Hub we are not only investing in this growing trend, but also investing in a great company and team that can execute.'

'Finding the right investor was extremely important to us,' said Matt Stuart, co-founder and co-CEO. 'Rob Stavis and the team at BVP have deep experience building great companies that benefit local merchants-Yodle, MindBody Online and Yelp are just a few great examples. We're excited to have them as a partner.'

About Main Street Hub

Founded in 2010, Main Street Hub is the networked CRM for Local. The company offers an integrated social, web, and email marketing solution designed to help merchants get more customers and keep them coming back by spreading word of mouth, extending their customer service, managing their online reputation, and leveraging Main Street Hub's merchant network. Headquartered in Austin, TX, Main Street Hub was founded by co-CEOs Matt Stuart and Andrew Allison while they were attending the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

For more information on Main Street Hub please visit: http://www.mainstreethub.com/. Stay in touch on Twitter and Facebook. For tips and thoughts on the latest trends in local marketing, please visit our blog.

About Bessemer Venture Partners
Bessemer Venture Partners (BVP) invests in early-stage, hyper-growth startups, partnering closely with entrepreneurs to build durable businesses. BVP is a global firm with offices in Menlo Park, Cambridge, New York, Mumbai, Bangalore, Herzliya and Sao Paolo. With $4 billion under management, BVP invests anywhere from $100,000 to $75 million in innovative companies like LinkedIn, Yelp, Skype, CornerstoneOnDemand, Pinterest, Box and Twilio. Over 100 BVP companies have gone public - in 2012 alone BVP had 5 IPOs, 7 M&A exits, and 20 new investments. Learn more at bvp.com and twitter.com/BessemerVP.