Yammer provides a social collaboration platform for enterprises that began as a messaging tool and has evolved into a broader platform with apps (polls, chat, events, Q&A, ideas), an activity feed/ticker and integrations with third-party services like Salesforce, Box and SAP. The product includes social features such as Likes, threaded conversations, badges and in-line video and supports corporate-firewall installs and single sign-on via Yammer Connect. The company reports about 4 million users, including employees at more than 85% of the Fortune 500, and tripled sales, headcount and paid seats in 2011; it currently has roughly 250 employees. Yammer plans product work on making data social across the enterprise, a universal search rollout, and native mobile apps for Android and iOS as priorities for the year. The company has about $100 million in cash on hand and says it may pursue acquisitions; it is planning a major marketing push and international expansion while intentionally delaying any near-term IPO. Yammer began as a "Twitter for businesses" and has expanded into a broader enterprise social networking and communications platform with features such as polls, chat, events, links, topics, Q&A, ideas, badges and in-line video. An activity feed aggregates stories about co-worker actions across enterprise apps and Yammer Connect enables single sign-on for third-party applications. The company says it has been adopted by over 100,000 businesses in 160 countries in less than three years and is used by employees at more than 80% of the Fortune 500, with customers including 7‑11, Ford, Southern Company, Shell and SuperValu. Yammer is hiring in sales, engineering and customer support and plans to scale operations across its San Francisco, London and Melbourne offices. The company faces competition from Jive, Salesforce's Chatter, CubeTree and others. Financially, Yammer has raised multiple rounds and reports continued growth as it expands functionality and enterprise adoption. Yammer builds an enterprise social-media product aimed at connecting workplace users. The company uses a freemium business model, which CEO David Sacks defended in the interview. Sacks discussed why more social-media-for-the-enterprise companies haven’t taken off and argued Yammer wasn’t a pivot. He also reiterated his continued support for Geni, the company Yammer spun out of. The article centers on Sacks’s perspective rather than disclosing operating metrics or detailed financials. Yammer provides an enterprise-grade microsharing and real-time communications service that is in use by over 60,000 companies and organizations. The company has built momentum since winning the 2008 TechCrunch50 conference and is focused on signing up more customers. Yammer recently closed a $10 million Series B and has close to $15 million in total venture capital. Following the raise it expanded its executive team, promoting co-founder Adam Pisoni to CTO and hiring David Satterwhite (sales) and Steve Apfelberg (marketing), among others. The startup plans to leverage the fresh capital and seasoned SaaS executives to accelerate customer growth and aim for profitability within the next year or two. Yammer is a workplace social network intended to let co-workers collaborate and communicate in a Twitter-like format. The company is a spin-off of Geni and is led by former PayPal COO David Sacks, who is splitting time between the two startups. Yammer raised $5 million to expand its sales capability and plans to hire a VP of Sales with the new funding. The product is being positioned to develop into a broader corporate social network to improve enterprise communications. The article notes competitors and similar newcomers such as Present.ly and WizeHive. Sacks said he expects to resolve his dual-CEO role within 12–18 months as the companies mature.

Total raised

$142M

Funding rounds

5

Latest round

Equity

Latest activity

Feb 2012