SCOTTISH Equity Partners (SEP) has invested in a young firm which aims to help businesses make money out of Twitter.

The private equity firm led a £1.2 million investment round in support of SocialBro's attempts to capitalise on the booming popularity of the microblogging internet site around the world.

Launched in May 2010, SocialBro has developed a range of analytical products that SEP believes can allow businesses to use Twitter as a strategic marketing tool.

It claims the tools allows brands to increase the number of Twitter users that belong to their online communities and "monetise" their social contacts.

SEP expects there to be strong international demand for such services at a time when many businesses are trying to figure out how to use social media effectively.

The investment firm said it was impressed by the rate of progress achieved by London-based SocialBro.

It said the company has attracted more than 3000 customers, and over 180,000 users from more than 100 countries. SEP provided the bulk of the £1.2m raised by SocialBro.

Mark Gracey, principal at SEP, said: "We believe SocialBro to be a highly scalable business, well positioned to take a significant share of the social network analytics market."

SocialBro founder and chief executive Javier Burón said the investment will allow the company to accelerate its international growth and deliver new products.

A specialist in information systems and computing engineering, Mr Buron lectured at Córdoba University in Spain. He has developed a variety of social apps.