Leading field force data intelligence software platform provider to leverage funds to advance product development, sales and marketing, and market penetration; Jim Grady appointed CEO to lead global growth and expansion
St. Petersburg, FL -- January 6, 2020– Spatial Networks, the creator of Fulcrum, the leading geospatial data collection and analysis platform for field operations, today announced that is has closed an investment of $42.5 million led by Kayne Partners, the growth equity group of Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors, L.P., and Kennet Partners, Ltd. The funding will primarily be used to scale the Company’s sales and marketing capabilities, accelerate its product development roadmap, and further expand the Fulcrum data collection platform into international markets. The company has appointed Jim Grady CEO to oversee all aspects of the company’s strategy and execution globally.
Spatial Networks drives digital transformation of field workforces via Fulcrum, an AI-powered data collection platform for commercial field workers. A market leading platform built on multiple decades of expertise in mobile field data collection and geospatial analytics with adoption by more than 30,000 users and 2100 customers in field-intensive industries such as utilities, construction, environmental services, engineering, Fulcrum optimizes field operations by enabling rapid deployment of mobile applications using a low-code development environment. Using Fulcrum, field workers can rapidly gather a vast range of data types, including audio and video, using user-built forms with geotagging capabilities. Key decision-makers gain real time insights into field operations efficiency and performance through visualization, quality assurance and data management tools, and flexible reporting.
With the completion of the deal, Jim Grady will assume the role of CEO, effective immediately. Grady brings more than twenty-five years of general management and leadership experience in high growth technology companies to Spatial Networks. As CEO of Cellebrite, Inc., a leading provider of cyber/digital intelligence software solutions–including mobile phone forensic extraction and AI-driven analytics product lines–for law enforcement, enterprise, & intelligence sectors, Grady scaled revenue from $5M to $100M while consistently expanding profit margins.
“Spatial Networks is uniquely positioned to transform the way organizations deploy and manage field workforces to better deliver superior customer experiences while increasing efficiency and profitability,” said Jim Grady, CEO, Spatial Networks “I look forward to building on the company’s impressive product and market position as we deliver even greater insight and workflow automation through next generation innovations that harness AI, low code-no code deployment, geospatial data collection and analytics, and an advanced reporting engine to establish Fulcrum as the industry’s dominant field force data intelligence platform.”
Nate Locke of Kayne Partners commented, “We are thoroughly impressed by Spatial Networks’ rapid growth and user adoption. The Company provides incredible value both for users in the field who now have a streamlined, robust data collection process, and for decision-makers who now have access to contextually relevant information and geospatial insights.”
“We are excited about the potential of Spatial Networks to build on its core capabilities in workflow automation, no code development and geospatial data to optimize field work forces using AI in a broad range of markets”, said Javier Rojas, Managing Partner, Kennet Partners. “We believe the combination of Spatial’s founding team, executives from Jim’s prior successes and Jim’s leadership will enable the company to scale rapidly and build a category leader.”
London, UK 3 January 2020.
Receipt Bank, the world’s leading digital bookkeeping platform, has raised $73.1 million (£55 million) in a successful Series C funding round. The round was led by Insight Partners, joined by Augmentum Fintech with participation from existing investors Kennet Partners and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC), and advised by Harris Williams.
The funds will be used to continue expansion in Europe, Australia and North America, and build on Receipt Bank’s award-winning product suite.
The company doubled customers in 2019, taking the total number of businesses using the platform to above 360,000.
Receipt Bank’s proprietary machine learning technology fetches financial information from multiple sources, digitises and categorises it, making it ready for accountants and bookkeepers, more than 50,000 of whom use the platform. The platform processes and stores 45 new fields of small business financial data every second from receipt photos, bank accounts, invoices and bills.
Receipt Bank CEO, Adrian Blair, commented: “This investment is an endorsement of our mission at Receipt Bank - to help millions of small businesses grow by getting control of their finances. Our machine learning technology enables accountants to do far more for their small business clients, and expands the market for professional advice by making accountants far more productive.
“The addition of Augmentum alongside our current investors, Insight, Kennet and CIBC, strengthens our board and will help us meet our ambitious growth goals, following a stellar 2019.”
Jason Ewell, Operating Partner at Insight Partners and Receipt Bank Board member, commented: “Receipt Bank continues to make giant leaps forward in machine learning technology. We are excited to see the company’s continued progress in the coming years.”
Tim Levene, CEO of Augmentum Fintech, said: “Digital bookkeeping allows all businesses to save time and expense and Receipt Bank's technology and growth make the company a clear leader in this sector.”
One of the fastest growing British technology companies, Receipt Bank automates bookkeeping to save businesses time and money on their taxes. The platform saves accountants one hour per client weekly and frees small business from 120 hours of annual financial admin.
Kennet Partners, the technology growth equity investor, has announced that it has appointed Jonathan Hewitson as Finance Director and Huan Jing Gan as a Director in the investment team.
Jonathan joins Kennet from Manzanita Capital, where he was Finance Director. Previously, he worked within the structuring & tax team at J Rothschild Capital Management, and at PWC where he qualified as a Chartered Accountant and worked within the Private Equity M&A tax team. Jonathan holds a BA (Hons) in Business Management from Newcastle University.
Huan Jing Gan ("Jing") joins Kennet from Kinnevik, where she was an Investment Professional in the Venture & Growth Investments team. Previously, she worked in the Investment Banking Division at Goldman Sachs within the London Telecom, Media & Technology team. Jing holds a BSc (Hons) degree in Business Management from Kings College London.
Michael Elias, Managing Director at Kennet, said: "We are thrilled to have Jonathan and Jing join our London-based investment group. With significant new capital for investment in Europe and the US, we will benefit from the experience that they both bring to our team."
Full Press Release on PR Newswire
Led by Insight Partners, the investment caps a record year of growth and will drive further development of CrossBorder's AI-based transfer pricing solutions
TARRYTOWN, N.Y., Sept. 24, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- CrossBorder Solutions, a global leader in technology-driven tax solutions, today announced a $40 million Series B investment led by Insight Partners to accelerate development of Fiona, the world's most advanced AI-based tax expert.
CrossBorder's cloud-based tax solutions automate the process of transfer pricing compliance and empower tax professionals to navigate the increasingly complex, localized regulatory landscape. From its groundbreaking cloud-based software platform, CrossBorder has created Fiona – the world's most advanced AI tax expert. Traditional, human-based approaches to tax are stuck in the past – inefficient, expensive, and susceptible to costly human error. Fiona is built to complement human tax professionals and simplify tax compliance and planning.
"The investment from Insight Partners will accelerate our product roadmap as we continue to scale our flagship transfer pricing solution," said Donald Scherer, co-founder and CEO of CrossBorder. "We are excited to partner with Insight, who share our vision of using artificial intelligence to reimagine the costly and time-intensive approaches to tax compliance of the past."
The investment comes as billions in transfer pricing adjustments are forecast to be imposed on global enterprises in 2019. By offering hyper-localized transfer pricing studies that meet the requirements of every jurisdiction in which customers operate, CrossBorder's solutions prevent audits, adjustments, and penalties with a modern, software-based approach.
The Series B financing builds on an exceptional year for CrossBorder. Since its inception the Company has experienced over 200% year-over-year growth with multinational corporations worldwide taking advantage of CrossBorder's modern approach to transfer pricing. The investment will be used to accelerate growth in all areas, including customer support and engineering. Jeff Horing, Co-founder and Managing Director at Insight Partners, will join CrossBorder's Board of Directors.
"We are excited to partner with CrossBorder to modernize legacy approaches to tax and accounting workflows," said Horing. "Transfer pricing is becoming more complex across different jurisdictions and fines continue to increase each year – every multinational corporation faces this problem. We look forward to working closely with CrossBorder's leadership team as they continue to bring the benefits of software to this exciting market."
CrossBorder was advised by Sparring Partners. Kennet Partners, a leading venture capital fund, led the Series A investment of $8 Million in 2017.
About CrossBorder Solutions
Founded in 2016, CrossBorder Solutions is the leader in AI-driven solutions for transfer pricing compliance. The Company's cloud-based solutions produce the required documentation that protects global enterprises from costly penalties. For more information please go to: www.xbs.ai
About Insight Partners
Insight Partners is a leading global venture capital and private equity firm investing in high-growth technology and software companies that are driving transformative change in their industries. Founded in 1995, Insight currently has over $20 billion of assets under management and has cumulatively invested in more than 300 companies worldwide. Insight's mission is to find, fund, and work successfully with visionary executives, providing them with practical, hands-on growth expertise to foster long-term success. For more information on Insight and all its investments, visit www.insightpartners.com or follow @insightpartners on Twitter.
Phil Wainewright (diginomica)
Summary: Eloomi's newly appointed chairman Adam Hale tells us he foresees a CRM-scale boom in people technology
Employee experience platform Eloomi is set to quadruple its headcount after scoring a $14 million funding round led by veteran SaaS investors Kennet Partners, who have brought in former Fairsail CEO Adam Hale as chairman. The fast-growing company is well placed to benefit from a growing focus on talent in midmarket businesses, says Hale, who spoke exclusively to diginomica last week:
There's such a skills crisis that if you can't acquire people and then really develop them and keep them, you can't stay in business. This whole area has become a burning platform for companies.
Eloomi provides learning and performance management in a modern, easy-to-use, cloud-based application that connects to existing core ERP and HR systems. Employees and managers use it to organize training, compliance, coaching, performance reviews, surveys and onboarding, all oriented around maximizing growth, engagement and productivity.
Based in Copenhagen and London and founded in 2015, the company has more than 350 customers and half a million users, spread across the Nordics, UK and other markets, mostly in Europe. Customers include anti-malware software provider Sophos and real estate chain Savills, office supplies distributor Lyreco and online retailer Harvey Norman. Eloomi's rapid growth compares well to Hale's experience at cloud HR provider Fairsail, which was acquired by Sage in 2017. He tells me:
It's the first scale-up I've looked at since Fairsail that's growing as quickly as Fairsail at that stage.
Hale believes companies like Eloomi will prosper as businesses spend more on software that helps them nurture talent. While "people are our greatest asset" has always been a frequent refrain, it's only now that companies have the tools to really measure performance and engagement, he says:
It's been corporate bullshit the past 30 years, it's now genuinely starting to be reality.
Company boards will start expecting to track talent metrics in the same way they currently track financial and marketing metrics, he argues:
Much more people information is going to be seen and discussed at board level. Only HR cared about HR. Everyone cares about people.
He believes this will lead to adoption of a new generation of people technology on a scale similar to the explosion that's been seen in the technology around customer engagement:
Look at the transformation in the marketing function in the past 20 years ... If you go to a midmarket company now and say, 'Take me through your customer segment, et cetera,' they would give you a completely worked-through answer.
The same transformation is happening around people. It's not there yet but it's coming really fast. That's why learning and the link to performance is such a dynamic area.
While Fairsail was notable for having been one of the first software startups to build a 'serverless' product directly on the Salesforce platform, Eloomi is part of a newer generation of serverless applications built on hyperscale cloud platforms — in its case, Microsoft Azure. This is the way of the future, believes Hale:
Organizations like Eloomi only have three choices — Azure, AWS or Salesforce. I don't think it's credible in any way to have another alternative. Those three are the only ones that have the customer trust to provide the security and reliability involved.
Should the list include Google Cloud Platform, I wondered? Hale believes GCP still has to prove itself as a fourth option:
I've only seen one scale-up that's been based on GCP and that one didn't get investment. It may come, and hiring Rob Enslin is a hugely powerful statement. I don't think they're in that trio yet so whether it's a quartet is a question mark.
Existing investor VF Venture, which helps support Danish innovation, also participated in the $14 million round. Eloomi currently has a little over 50 employees and plans to recruit 150 more as it expands operations in Denmark, the UK, and the US. Since VF's first investment two years ago, the business has doubled its revenue every year.
Today's more agile business environment demands continuous enhancement and assessment of learning and skills. At the same time, performance reviews are moving from the traditional cycle of once or twice a year to more of an ongoing model. This is creating a demand for a new generation of more flexible applications, like Eloomi, that are easy to deploy and use.
Image credit - Bar chart growth to cloud man on ladder © Warakorn - Fotolia.com
Disclosure - Salesforce is a diginomica premier partner at time of writing
https://diginomica.com/eloomi-learning-performance-growth-companies
SocialSurvey Raises $14.5 Million in Series A
San Ramon, CA (PRUnderground) April 23rd, 2019
SocialSurvey has raised $14.5 million in new financing to continue expanding its platform and scale into multiple business verticals.
“The reputation space is crowded and highly disjointed,” said SocialSurvey’s CEO, Scott Harris. “Multi-location brands often invest in multiple products to support their online reviews, employee engagement, employee feedback and compliance monitoring, but still don’t drive meaningful improvement in customer experience. We solve all that in a single solution.”
The software developer is backed by venture capital veterans Curtis Feeny and Jim McClean of Silicon Valley Data Capital (SVDC) and Eric Filipek of Kennet Partners LLC. With this funding round, Curtis and Eric will be joining the SocialSurvey Board of Directors.
“SocialSurvey captures that critical moment when an employee and customer interact like nothing we have seen. The impact on customer satisfaction and employee behavior is extremely special. We are thrilled to be partnered with this great group of people,” commented Eric Filipek of Kennet Partners.
“We’re thrilled to invest in SocialSurvey—it’s a very unique play in the market. SocialSurvey is creating a new experience category by consolidating various technologies into a single open platform that puts the enterprise in control. Who doesn’t want data in motion for driving business?” remarked Curtis Feeny of Silicon Valley Data Capital.
In addition to SVDC and Kennet, SocialSurvey secured additional investment from Greg Hitchan at Tri-Valley Ventures of local East Bay Area fame and the ventures team at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.
About Silicon Valley Data Capital
Silicon Valley Data Capital is an early stage investor in next-generation enterprise software companies. As big data, predictive analytics, AI and ML applications become more critical to the success of businesses everywhere, SVDC is helping entrepreneurs develop the most advanced applications and services to match their needs. For more information, please visit www.svdcapital.com
About Kennet Partners
Established in 1997, Kennet is a growth equity investor that invests in bootstrapped, fast-growing companies providing information technology products and business services that leverage technology. Kennet currently has over $700 million under management and has offices in London, Frankfurt and Silicon Valley. For more information, please visit www.kennet.com
About Tri-Valley Ventures
Since 2013, Tri-Valley Capital has focused on value-added investments in start-up and established ventures located in the growing Tri-Valley region in the East Bay of California. For more information, please visit www.trivalleyventures.com
About Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati
For over 50 years, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati has offered a broad range of services and legal disciplines focused on serving the principal challenges faced by the management and boards of directors of business enterprises. For more information, please visit www.wsgr.com
About SocialSurvey
SocialSurvey empowers businesses to drive employee behavior while improving customer experience, online reputation and revenues. Its unique, player-integrated approach to customer feedback yields powerful CX insights while amplifying online reviews, marketing automation and local search rankings. For more information, please visit www.socialsurvey.com