Digital marketing firm clickTRUE gets ‘substantial’ VC funds

• Firm’s CEO is founder of tech portal Hardware Zone (HWZ) and regional tech magazine HWM
• VC funds to be used to fuel South-East Asia expansion; VC confident of later listing or acquisition

ONLINE consulting firm clickTRUE said it has raised a ‘seven-figure’ sum in venture capital funding led by Rockstead Capital Group and ESW Manage, although it did not disclose actual numbers.
 
The firm, privately held by Kyosei Ventures which is an associate of the Singapore Press Holdings (SPH), specialises in search and conversion strategies to help brand owners strategise, design and build compelling web experiences.
 
This includes digital consultancy, search engine marketing and optimisation (SEM and SEO), social media marketing, web analytics consultancy and conversion rate optimisation.
 
In a statement, clickTRUE claims to have recorded more than 400% growth in revenue in the last three years, making it one of the fastest growing independent digital agency groups in South-East Asia.
 
“clickTRUE’s management is made up of experienced, savvy entrepreneurs and they are backed by a blue chip investor,” said Terence Tan of Rockstead Capital Group.
 
“They’ve also been profitable and displayed a clear strategy on capturing the rising demand online spending in South-East Asia, showing heartening potential,” he added.
 
Its chief executive officer Jackie Lee (pic) was also the founder of technology portal Hardware Zone (HWZ) and technology magazine HWM, which is published and distributed in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines.
 
HWZ also publishes titles such as GameAxis.com, GameAxis China and GameAxis Unwired Magazine, as well as PVi (Photo/Video magazine). HWZ was later acquired by SPH.
 
“There is room for a large regional search marketing group in South-East Asia,” said Eric Sng of ESW Manage.
 
“clickTRUE has demonstrated the abilities to build repeatable and scalable models. Its subsidiaries like clickTRUE Malaysia and Noisy Crayons and its social media marketing arm also became profitable within short spans of time.
 
“The potential for a listing or an acquisition is highly likely in the coming years, thus we are delighted to take part in this round of investment to fund their expansion," said Sng.

[UPDATE]: clickTRUE (M) Sdn Bhd is also a Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC Malaysia) status company. In an email to Digital News Asia (DNA), Lee said that Malaysia is "one of the most important South-East Asian markets for us."
 
With more than 100 million clicks optimised across industry sectors, clickTRUE said it is looking at aggregating more click data across the South-East Asian region with the latest investment.
 
"Our vision remains the same; our aim is to build the largest digital agency network in South-East.Asia,” said its CEO Lee.
 
“We are constantly collecting click data gleaned from running campaigns for our clients. This has helped us to identify seasonal trends and jumpstart our clients' next campaign to increase their marketing efficiency<” he added.
 
clickTRUE was awarded the Yahoo! Platinum Search Marketing Agency Ambassador for South-East Asia last year, was the first Google Analytics Certified Partner in South-East Asia, and is part of the Facebook Agency Programme.
 
Its clients include SPH, Nikon, Toshiba, Canon, TV3 Alt media, L’oreal, Fujitsu PC Asia, Maybank, Olympus, LG, Starhub, HTC, Marshall Cavendish, Marigold, Vitagen and others.
 
 
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