Online marketing firm raises €1.25m

ONLINE marketing firm Pigsback.com has raised €1.25 million in fundraising with the company saying it is positive about the future and is trading profitably.

The fundraising is made up of new funds and conversion of shareholder loans.

Chief executive Michael Dwyer said: “This funding has been an important tidy up and enables us to keep moving forward with confidence. All of our business units are operating profitably and having endured two years of financial challenge we are now guardedly optimistic about our growth and profit prospects.

“Thankfully our business model has endured very well and we’ll keep evolving to maximise our relevance for a very active user base.”

Dublin-based Pigsback, which offers discounts to consumers has more than 310,000 active users. It also has 12,000 followers on Facebook and Twitter.

“We’ve been through the dotcom bubble and now this credit crunch. All in our first decade. Who said business was easy? I’m proud of our reaction and very confident in our ability to grow again profitably.

“It’s been a veritable rollercoaster – for the most part very positive, but there have been some white knuckle moments too.”

Mr Dwyer said the company had a particularly tough year in 2008, when it downsized its operations in Britain and suspended its North America plans.

“In 2009 we stabilised the ship and managed to show a marginal EBITDA (operating) profit which compared to an EBITDA loss of €1.7m in 2008. It was a critical turnaround,” said Mr Dwyer.

He added that Britain is showing “modest growth” and said in hindsight the company over-invested in Britain and its timing was unfortunate.