Snappy Kraken Announces "Series A" Investor Funding, in Addition to New Hire

ORMOND BEACH, Fla., Oct. 11, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Snappy Kraken, a MarTech company focused on helping financial professionals personalize, automate, and track marketing campaigns and business processes, has announced Series A investor funding. Additionally, the company has brought on a new hire to help with business development and growth.

"After receiving the XYPN Fintech Startup Competition award last year, our company has been evolving rapidly," said Snappy Kraken CEO and co-founder, Robert Sofia. "We caught the eye of a strategic investor at a time when, according to trade publications, business investors have been getting bored with technology options out there. We see this as huge validation of the innovative solutions Snappy Kraken has brought to market – and, more importantly, of the cool things still on the drawing board or in development now."

"The investor is one of our enterprise clients – so the $1 million Series A funding is a vote of confidence based on first-hand experience working with the Snappy Kraken product development team," Sofia added.

HELPING ADVISORS DO MORE WITH LESS

"Snappy Kraken helps advisors accomplish more with less time, which is what other technology companies always claim they are doing. But Snappy Kraken is unique because of our focus on client acquisition and marketing automation. In addition to helping advisors automate and streamline their business processes, we are now focused on helping them introduce new prospects into their pipeline and build more relationships with those prospects," said Sofia.

"Advisors can't compete on a higher level with the largest financial institutions in the world if they don't automate. With the squeeze on commissions and how the DOL is changing things and how fee structures are compressing, advisors need to be able to attract the right clients, quickly and with less effort. They need do more with less and that is exactly what our solution does," added Sofia.

INTEGRATION AND SIMPLICITY ATTRACTIVE TO INVESTORS

"After we launched our initial products, we began benchmarking the results. We've been able to establish the value of our solutions. We've also uncovered new opportunities to improve them. This funding is going to help us accomplish that," Sofia explained.

"There are key industry partners that we have started integrating with who provide websites, CRM, and other software. By building technology that communicates with those other tools, really creative things can happen. An advisor that enters a new prospect into his CRM can automatically have campaigns running to help nurture that prospect. Or, if an advisor has a client that has an anniversary coming up or has new children or grandchildren, our system can conceivably sense that and launch appropriate campaigns to those clients. If a prospect enters in through our system, their data can be automatically put into their financial planning software or their CRM or open up new features and functionality within existing tools," said Sofia.

"In the technology environment today, you really need to have a platform, not just stand-alone services. Snappy Kraken is going to expand into being more of a platform by integrating all the other things advisors love," Sofia said.

INVESTOR MOTIVATION

"I invested in Snappy Kraken because I felt their product was going to be a differentiator in the marketplace and in our field," said Vince Munno, CFP®, CLU, president and CEO of Universal Financial Consultants. "Snappy Kraken's technology is a business differentiator. It's very simple. The advisors affiliated with Universal Financial Consultants will have menus of different communications campaigns from which to choose. We can build out those campaigns and offer them exclusively to our advisors and they don't even have to think about the automated marketing process," Munno added.

"We are also excited about developing in partnership with Snappy Kraken an automated marketing platform for term insurance on which clients can receive quotes and submit applications online. It will have express underwriting and a simplified application process where we will make it very easy for agents to take care of their clients' insurance needs – all with technology. We'll be educating their consumers or their prospects with the Snappy Kraken campaigns. The system will include customizable landing pages, a quote engine and a needs analysis fact finder. The system will then lead them to a process where they will fill out an application online. We think that's going to be a game changer," remarked Munno.

NEW HIRE WITH A UNIQUE SKILLSET

On the heels of the funding announcement, Snappy Kraken announced that Dave Connor is now overseeing sales strategy and new client acquisition for the business. Prior to joining Snappy Kraken, Dave held executive level positions in the sales and marketing divisions for leading firms such as Bank of America/Merrill Lynch, Galaxy Funds and Royal Bank of Scotland. Dave was most recently VP Channel Development at Financial Media Exchange. 

"Dave is a key partner for us because of his experience working in both marketing and technology, which is where we live, and also because he has relationships with several large financial institutions from his twenty plus years in the business," said Sofia.

"I started in the financial services industry 25 years ago and was an advisor for many years. I became a wholesaler, calling on advisors, educating them on select products and giving them marketing campaigns and techniques to use. That's where I found my passion in helping advisors build their book of business," said Connor.

"As Vice President of Sales for Snappy Kraken, I find advisors take my calls because they know I am reaching out to help with a product or service that can really help them grow. I know the audience. Having been an advisor, I've walked the walk and know the language and pain points. I know the space we are in and all of the different aspects of being an advisor, whether independent or working for a firm. Snappy Kraken has solutions that are exciting and easy to use. In addition to helping advisors attract new clients, Snappy Kraken tools can help them build strong loyalty with existing clients," added Connor.  

Connor's role at Snappy Kraken is two-fold: building brand awareness of enterprise solutions for larger institutions and building out the retail platform to support Snappy Kraken's enterprise clients. He'll also be in charge of hiring additional business development professionals as the company continues to grow.

ENTERPRISE SOLUTIONS ON THE HORIZON

"By end of year we'll roll out our full retail version, as well as announcing new enterprise accounts," said Connor. "Once we roll out the full retail version later this year, advisors will see on a broader scale what the platform can do. It's so much more than marketing automation – there are many business management components as well. Advisors will gravitate to the platform because it's very user-friendly," added Connor.

"Dave is going to be key to leveraging his existing relationships into partnerships for Snappy Kraken but also managing those relationships. When we partner with a new enterprise, there's a lot of coordination that has to be done to make sure the partnership is worthwhile. Dave will bring in those people, manage those relationships, and help drive additional revenue into the firm. He has a unique skillset in that he's good at sales, he understands marketing, and he understands finance. Those three attributes will contribute to our business tremendously and we are excited to have him. He's already proven to be a real asset," added Sofia.

"Robert has been strategic in the way he's growing the company. For that reason, I have a lot of admiration for him and the entire team. We've realized there is a huge appetite for content delivery and thorough marketing automation out there. We're anticipating massive growth for the company," added Connor.

ABOUT SNAPPY KRAKEN

Snappy Kraken, is a SaaS marketing solution that helps financial advisors personalize, automate, and track marketing campaigns and business processes. Users can choose from a number of ready-made campaigns, each containing combinations of professionally designed and written email drip series, social media posts, ads and more. Clicks, opens, and shares are managed and tracked from within a single dashboard. Snappy Kraken, which took first place in the FinTech Startup Competition hosted by the XY Planning Network in September 2016, is led by industry veteran and practice management consultant Robert Sofia (www.robertsofia.com). For more information about Snappy Kraken, visit www.snappykraken.com

Media Contact:      
Leesy Palmer
Impact Communications
913-649-5009
[email protected] 
 

SOURCE Snappy Kraken