Torchlite Brings in Big Name Expertise, Funding

INDIANAPOLIS – Indianapolis-based Torchlite has named two tech industry veterans to leadership roles and closed on a $2 million round of seed funding. Scott McCorkle, former chief executive officer of Salesforce Marketing Cloud, is now executive chairman and Jeffrey Rohrs, chief marketing officer of New York-based Yext (NYSE: YEXT) has been added to the board.

Torchlite has now secured $4 million in seed funding since its launch in 2015 and says the latest round will be used to scale up sales and marketing efforts outside the state.The company is touting 228 percent revenue growth over the last year, while tripling its customer base and expanding its network of marketing freelancers, or Torchliters, to 250. One year ago, Torchlite announced plans to add more than 140 jobs over three years.

Since leaving Salesforce last August, McCorkle has taken on multiple roles at Indianapolis tech companies, including executive in residence for Indianapolis-based High Alpha and executive chairman of marketing technology startup Fuzic Inc. McCorkle was honored last year as the 2016 TechPoint Mira Awards Trailblazer in Technology.

McCorkle says “I speak with marketing executives every day and there is a strong common theme: companies need help accelerating their marketing plans to action. Help means technology to identify marketing objectives and then help managing marketing campaigns and deliverables to completion. And help means finding experts to do the work. More than ever, there is a critical need for some company to focus on the full breadth of marketing in a way to help marketers identify, prioritize and staff their marketing objectives. This company is Torchlite.”

Yext helps customers manage details of their online presence and Torchlite says Rorhs will help “guide the company’s approach and vision to empowering marketers.” Rohrs says Torchlite possesses an “impressive combination of technology and on-demand talent” that he says “stands to help companies of all sizes market more efficiently and effectively than ever before. Their offering eliminates either/or marketing hiring decisions, allowing organizations to tap into a deep bench with rich strategic, creative and technological expertise that it would take years to otherwise build in-house.” He previously served as vice president of marketing insights at Salesforce and its Indianapolis-based marketing cloud predecessor, ExactTarget, and president of Cleveland-based Optiem.

Torchlite was founded by Susan Marshall, who previously worked for big names in tech like Apple, Adobe and Salesforce Marketing Cloud.