Hootsuite has launched the Integration Fund, a $5 million, multi-year fund to support developers building enterprise integrations and business applications for Hootsuite’s platform.
“Hootsuite’s wide adoption and fast-paced growth is due in large part to the contributions of developers to our ecosystem,” said Matt Switzer, senior vice president of strategy and corporate development at Hootsuite. “We’re investing in the Integration Fund to encourage them to continue to develop applications that enable our customers to connect social to marketing, analytics, and other business solutions they rely on every day.”
Currently, Hootsuite boasts more than 2.5 million app installs and “hundreds” of apps on its App Directory. From the official page, the criteria for eligible developers is light on details; devs should either build “Innovative business applications that help our users connect with their audiences across their customer journey on social,” or “Solutions that integrate deeply with the Hootsuite platform, using our SDKs and APIs.”
“Our platform strategy is based on our customer needs and enabling them to fuel their digital transformation initiatives. We do this through an open platform by making our APIs and SDKs available with robust documentation and support so developers and partners can build on our platform and help us solve for customer needs and extend the value of social across the business,” said Omar Kaywan, global head of partner marketing for Hootsuite. “We also consistently communicate with our partner ecosystem on customer needs and pain points as well as trends in the market so we can stay ahead of the curve.”
Hootsuite also launched a new developer portal to provide full access to Hootsuite’s SDKs and APIs. The portal includes a developer blog and technical support meant to expedite the process of building integrations on the Hootsuite platform.
“The fund is designed to fuel the innovations we have seen on our platform for the last four years and remove some of the financial barriers that developers can face,” said Kaywan.
Over the past few months, Hootsuite has been aggressive about acquisitions that boost the company’s enterprise offerings. The company acquired AdEspresso, which allows businesses to split test their Facebook and Instagram ad campaigns, in early February. Soon after, it acquired New York-based social marketing measurement tool LiftMetrix and Snapchat analytics platform Naritiv, which allowed Hootsuite to open an LA office.
“Hootsuite has enabled Synaptive to reach millions of customers while continuing to incubate innovative and relevant business applications on the Hootsuite platform. Synaptive has worked closely with Hootsuite to fuel the development of more than 15 enterprise strength integrations,” said David Dmytryshyn, CEO of Synaptive Technologies.
The company says that this fund and developer platform are part of the company’s partner ecosystem, which works with companies like Slack and Microsoft, to allow businesses to integrate Hootsuite’s technology with their existing solutions.
“Hootsuite has continued to bolster our platform as a full social media management solution – from social marketing to social selling. We want to drive our customers’ social initiatives across the entire organization to grow their business and deliver measurable impact,” said Kaywan. “As organic social reach declines, it’s not only about monitoring or engaging with customers, but creating synergy between organic, owned and paid social. We are committed to enabling enterprises to measure social ROI through our Analytics & Insights solutions as well as through the recent acquisition of Liftmetrix.”