Marketing Startup Shift Raises $6M For European Expansion

Marketing startup Shift is announcing that it has raised $6 million in new funding.

The round was led by European firm DN Capital, with DN managing partner Nenad Marovac joining Shift’s board of directors. Shift CEO James Borow said this funding is specifically aimed at fueling the company’s growth in Europe.

The company already has one office in London and we can expect to see more open in the future, he said, adding that Shift is also working to localize its product for various European markets.

The company started out as a social ad business called GraphEffect. However, it has expanded its vision by building an “open marketing cloud” that allows marketers to join different teams and install different apps (GraphEffect’s social ad-buying tools are available as one of those apps). The company says its customers include American Express. Sony, AT&T, and Red Bull.

Borow told me that he sees “a battle of the marketing clouds” shaping up in Europe, with the opportunity for Shift to be the “open and collaborative alternative” to a company like Salesforce.com.

“Making sure that we had an experienced team to help expand in Europe is a big priority,” he said.

“We think we’re in a really strong position, and having additional capital to deploy in this growth is the next step in the plan.”