Babbler finalises €2 million fundraising round led by Omnes Capital and CM-CIC Capital Privé

Babbler, the professional social media platform dedicated to media relations, has finalised a €2 million fundraising round led jointly by Omnes Capital and CM-CIC Capital Privé.

Launched in 2013 by two sisters, Hannah Oiknine and Sarah Azan, Babbler is a platform for exchanging content and news in real time between communications and media professionals (editors, journalists, bloggers etc.).
With the growing number of new channels of influence, the company offers a new approach to media relations drawing on the logic of social media: factoring in the ideas of community, engagement and data.
The tool acts as a real facilitator that can be used to optimise interaction between advertisers, communications/PR agencies and the media with a matching system on registering.
Journalists and influencers have access to targeted news based on their centres of interest, while advertisers benefit from live reports on monitoring of their publications and exchanges with journalists.
Around 4,000 journalists and influencers, for whom registration is free, and more than 300 advertisers use the platform.

This round of fundraising will enable the start-up to continue to develop its product while also furthering its business development in France and the United States.
It already has 20 employees based between Paris and New York.
Babbler won Microsoft’s Imagine Cup in 2013, was named one of the top 100 start-ups to invest in by Challenges magazine, and was awarded the Web2Day jury’s prize in June 2014.

Hannah Oiknine, co-founder of Babbler, comments : “This fundraising will enable Babbler to maintain and step up its technological and commercial leadership. We now have the means to achieve our ambitions and are keen to unveil our plans for 2016: recruiting staff, new features and international presence.”

Sarah Azan, co-founder of Babbler, comments : “With Babbler, we are changing the user practices of a sector, and that is a real challenge! In France, we have successfully brought together operators from the PR ecosystem to share our vision. This fundraising will enable us to build an all-encompassing and international solution and prove the scalability of our model.”

François-Xavier Dedde, Principal at Omnes Capital, states : “Management of press relations is an area that has seen little notable innovation over the last 10 years. Babbler has come up with a real breakthrough approach to press relations. It has structurally changed the way of working between different members of the ecosystem (journalists, advertisers, broadcasters) in order to completely update the codes of traditional press communications. In addition, with Sarah and Hannah, the management team forms a family duo that offers a very strong strategic fit with a real product-based technical vision and high quality professionalism.”

Stéphane Pesqué, Management Board Member at CM-CIC Capital Privé, states : “Babbler has come onto the market with a relevant and innovative offering, relating to a clearly expressed market need. We were attracted by its growth potential and the relevance of its business model.”

To download the “Babbler Series A media kit” go to Babbler HERE

To keep up to date with live news about the start-up register on Babbler HERE