MarketTools, marketing company, raises $23M amid competition

MarketTools, a San Francisco company that provides businesses with Web tools to manage their marketing, has raised $23 million in a fifth round of capital to help it make acquisitions amid growing competition.

The decade-old company offers companies online tools to do things like conduct surveys, and then view results via the Web, as well as analyze findings. It offers research and reader panels.

Advanced Equities made the investment. MarketTools may raise another $2 million to close the round, the company said. The news was first reported by VentureWire.

MarketTools also announced it had acquired CustomerSat, a Mountain View, Calif., customer-feedback management company. Combined with the new company, MarketTools now has a revenue run rate of $100 million, chief executive Amal Johnson said. That compares to $91 million in revenue last year.

According to VentureWire:

MarketTools previously raised more than $60 million from investors including General Mills Inc., Procter & Gamble Co., Capstone Ventures, ComVentures, Dominion Ventures, Oak Hill Venture Partners, Ticonderoga Capital and Monitor Clipper Funds.

MarketTools faces competition from companies such as J.D. Power & Associates, which Tuesday acquired online marketer Umbria Inc.; publicly traded Constant Contact Inc., which recently filed for a secondary offering valued at about $95 million; ExactTarget Inc.; and BlueHornet Networks Inc.

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