Social Media Analytics Firm Optimal Lands $7m

US-based social media ad and analytics platform Optimal has raised $7m in Series A funding, which it will use to drive expansion of its tools and hire for its sales/marketing and engineering teams. The firm has also appointed Paul Suh as Chief Financial Officer.

Optimal helps brands and advertisers manage social ad campaigns in real-time through its media acquisition and optimization platform, and proprietary audience analytics suite (Audience Matrix and Expander). The company is based in San Francisco, with offices in Palo Alto, New York and Chicago.

Existing investors Neu Ventures, Stonnington Asset Allocation Fund and WGI Group joined the latest funding round, along with a list of new investors.

Founder and CEO Rob Leathern (pictured) comments: 'We've quadrupled social media ad revenue year over year while building awesome real-time ad buying and analytics technology. Paul Suh brings the strong financial and operating expertise that will help us continue to rapidly scale the business in 2013 and beyond, and build upon our leadership in the space.'

Suh was most recently SVP of Finance and Operations at digital ad and video gaming ad platform LiveGamer, after serving as CFO and COO of GamerDNA Media, acquired by Live Gamer in June 2010.

Web site: www.optimalsocial.com .