Marketwake, one of the fastest-growing digital marketing agencies in Atlanta, unveiled its new venture fund, Marketwake Ventures, and announced its first investment in an Atlanta-based startup, Sonar. In addition to its new venture arm, Marketwake provides B2B and B2C digital marketing to help companies achieve their biggest goals.

"Business owners assume that the only funding sources are VC firms, PE firms, or angels," says Brooke Beach, founder and CEO of Marketwake. "I am passionate about opening new funding opportunities in Atlanta, so it just made sense to start a fund that expands our tech ecosystem. Think of all the money that could open up if small to mid-sized businesses started funds — the impact could be huge."

Since launching in 2015, Marketwake founders Brooke Beach and Maddie Richardson have seen exponential growth and helped hundreds of companies and brands solve their biggest business challenges. Growing from four full-time employees in 2017 to 26 in 2019, Marketwake is continuing to make considerable strides in the market and is currently projected to double the company in 2020. Notable stats to date:

• Marketwake was named #603 in Inc.'s 5000 Fastest Growing Companies with an impressive growth rate of 772.64%
• Marketwake's CRM and automation implementation team closed nearly $2mm in sales in 2019
• Marketwake recently relocated to a new headquarters in Armour Yards.
• Marketwake received Inc.'s Best Workplaces of 2020
• Marketwake launched Marketwake Venture's and invested in Sonar, alongside Slack and Parade to close a $1.6mm seed round

With the launch of Marketwake Ventures, the digital marketing firm moves into new territory: investing in the companies and products that make a difference for their clients.

"At Marketwake, we frequently use new technology and can see if a tool has the potential to scale," says Beach. "It just made sense to start a fund that not only invests in other businesses, but has an outlet for testing, launching, and rolling out the new tech to dozens of potential clients. Ultimately, our clients are going to see better results because we're constantly improving our tech stack."

"Our first investment is in a tool that we use," says Beach of Sonar. "We want to continue investing in the companies that make a difference not only in the world but hit closer to home with our clients. At the end of the day, we were impressed by Sonar's leadership and blown away by their platform. This is an investment that we believe in fully and is helping our primary business constantly improve."

With Sonar under its belt, Marketwake Ventures hopes to invest in one more company in 2020.

To learn more visit https://marketwake.com/marketwake-ventures/