Canadian Startup Uses Fresh Funding to Hire Top Talent

Toronto’s Influitive, a startup that specializes in customer advocate management and mobilization, last week raised $3.75 million in funding from First Round Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and other angels and firms. At the time, the Canadian startup also revealed that James Geshwiler, managing director of CommonAngels—which participated in the round—was joining the startup’s board of directors.

Today Victor Belfor.

“Victor’s proven success and years of experience will be very valuable as we grow Influitive,” said Mark Organ, co-founder and CEO of Influitive. “His strengths of community building and mentorship as well as focus on revenue will help us scale faster. As the Vice President of Business Development, Victor will be primarily focused on customers and partners.”

Victor has more than 15 years of experience in business development in mobile, software-as-a-service, and business-to-business marketplaces. He was most recently the vice president of strategic alliances at RingCentral. Victor will be working out of Influitive’s San Francisco offices.

“Influitive’s innovation and visionary strategy is extremely compelling,” said Victor Belfor, Vice President, Business Development, Influitive. “I believe that advocate mobilization and word-of mouth management is the new holy grail of B2B marketing. Mark and his team are perfectly positioned to provide thought leadership in this space and I’m excited to contribute to Influitive’s success.”

“The size and breadth of this seed round of funding far exceeds our expectations,” Mark said last week of his company’s capital injection. “Not only does it include some of the most renowned venture capital firms and individual angel investors, but we also raised funds from both coasts of the United States, Canada, Europe and Asia.”

“Influitive’s visionary approach to mobilizing and socializing customer advocates solves a significant problem for B2B companies—leveraging their advocates to increase sales velocity,” praised Chris Fralic a partner of First Round Capital. “Mark Organ and his team have the experience to develop this exciting new market opportunity, as they have done previously when building Eloqua, a global market leader in B2B marketing automation.”