Framingham-based Nimbit just raised $1.25M through two rounds with current investors this morning according to their Chairman & CEO Bob Cramer and VP Marketing Carl Jacobson. The money will be used to grow their team and accelerate development around new direct-to-fan products for musicians.
“The music industry is now turning the corner and direct-to-fan has emerged as the new model,” shared Cramer, Nimbit’s CEO (pictured to the right). “We’re fortunate to be in the right place, at the right time, leading this direct-to-fan revolution. This money will be used to accelerate our vision of a whole new level in artist/fan connection.”
Nimbit was founded by Patrick Faucher and Phil Antoniades in 2002 on a mission to build the most comprehensive platform for direct-to-fan marketing and commerce. Ahead of its time in terms of the music industry still being centered on the label model, Nimbit initially started serving what was known as DIY (do-it-yourself) artists. Starting with building self-managed websites for artists, the company evolved the platform to meet their needs as well as the dominance of the social web.
Along the way Nimbit has picked up an incredible team of advisers and private investors including Mike Dreese (founder of Newbury Comics and an early investor in DataXu), David Friend (founder of Carbonite), Gail Goodman (CEO of Constant Contact), Dan Rose (founder of Rykodisc Records with artists like The Grateful Dead, David Bowie), Paul Birch (Director of Common Angels), and David Baum (entrepreneur turned VC, currently with Stage 1 Ventures and S1 Capital Partners).
Since the company’s founding in 2002, we have witnessed more and more artists — including big ones like Lady Gaga and Radiohead — making viable careers by going direct to fans. In fact, most artists, no matter their level, now realize direct-to-fan is essential to their success. Nimbit’s “all-in-one” platform is built just for this, integrating across the multitude of channels artists now have available to connect with and sell to fans including email, Facebook, MySpace, and even Twitter. Over 10,000 artists are using their platform today.
The screen shot above is the Nimbit value proposition. Its platform offers a marketing and commerce platform that artists, managers, labels and the entire music ecosystem can use to collaborate on and drive sales, marketing, and distribution — directly to their fans. Nimbit allows artists to grow, manage and connect with fan bases (including email marketing), sell songs, albums and merchandise, and capture and analyze fan activity on the platform. One of the best features of Nimbit is its integration with Facebook, which provides a new outlet and store to sell music on. You can browse all sorts of new artists on the Nimbit platform, including Rusted Root, Roomful of Blues and 100 Monkeys, here.
Nimbit will be heading down to Texas for SXSW to enjoy great music and meet with partners and artists interested in their direct-to-fan solutions. They are having open meetings at the Hilton in the afternoon, so if you want to learn more about the offerings or just hang with a fellow Boston team, tweet at the company with the hashtag #nimbit and they’ll make it happen.
