Back in 2009 Altruik raised a $4.7 million Series A from a group that included New York venture funds DFJ Gotham, First Round Capital, Greenhill SAVP and Zelkova. Today it announced a new $2.8 million dollar raised with these sames names plus contributions from the newly formed Centurion Venture Partners and the New York Angels.
The re-up is a vote of confidence that the company is headed in the right direction, although the diminished size of the round speaks to the challenges Altruik faced. Sources say that it was having trouble delivering on the technology it promised, a service that integrates with any CMS and allows for simple automated fixes that improve SEO and remain compliant with the big search engine’s best practices.
Since the A round in 2009 founder Tom Kwon left the company and CEO Eric Gertler is more firmly at the reigns. “I founded the company from boot strap to series A round and due to professional and personal differences with Eric Gertler, the CEO I hired, I am no longer associated with the company,” Kwon told Betabeat by email.
Gertler, a publishing vet who ran U.S. News and World Report, Fast Company and Atlantic Monthly, sees an opportunity to aggressively pitch Altruik’s technology. “This additional funding enables us to invest in sales and marketing,” he said.
Altruik has some massive customers like Home Depot on the retail side who want to maximize their sites potential but don’t have the editorial muscle to get down into the nitty gritty of SEO. As social media becomes the increasingly dominant force driving traffic and sales online, an automated SEO platform is going to seem like a very attractive way to set and forget.
