• CHILI publish

  Participated · Equity · Mar 2022

  CHILI publish offers a cloud-based Creative Automation platform that lets brands and agencies create, edit and share visual content via secure graphic templates that enforce brand guidelines. Its customers include large agencies and Fortune 500 brands such as Carrefour, Coca-Cola and Mars across retail, FMCG, real estate and automotive. The platform is also embedded by MarTech vendors like Sitecore, 4AllPortal, Akeneo, Horizontal and Pimcore to create new revenue streams and connectors between content platforms. The company has a team of over 75 people and a global ecosystem of integration partners. CHILI publish intends to use recent funding to accelerate solution and community development, attract new talent, and boost go-to-market and sales operations in the United States and Europe. Financially, the company announced a €10m funding round to support these plans. CHILI publish, founded in 2010 and based in Aalst, Belgium, is a SaaS provider of a browser-based editing software suite called CHILI publisher. The product turns original graphic design work into 'Smart Templates' that let visual creators produce graphics for print, social media, online campaigns and packaging while safeguarding brand guidelines. The company says CHILI publisher is adopted worldwide by both major and niche brands across marketing, retail, cosmetics, food & beverage and other verticals. It also integrates with an extensive ecosystem of third-party partners. CHILI publish recently raised €3 million to boost product development and accelerate expansion into the US. CEO Kevin Goeminne said the funding will speed US market outreach and propel the company's solution development roadmap.

• Sparkcentral

  Participated · Equity · Nov 2016

  Sparkcentral provides a digital customer engagement platform that manages and resolves customer service interactions over modern communication channels, using customer routing and prioritization technology along with workflow optimization and reporting tools. The company serves global brands including Direct Energy, Francesca’s, Goodbaby, Qdoba, Slack, T-Mobile, WestJet, Uber, Discover, Netflix, Delta Air Lines, Emirates and Western Union. Led by CEO Davy Kestens and former Chief Commercial Officer Christoph Neut, Sparkcentral operates from San Francisco and has EMEA headquarters in Hasselt, Belgium. The business plans to use new funding to drive international growth—primarily across the EMEA region—accelerate product innovation and expand its global team. Financially, the company has raised a total of $37.5M to date. Sparkcentral builds software to enable customer support interactions over social media, positioning itself as a customer service firm that focuses on social channels rather than marketing. The company serves large enterprise clients such as Delta and differentiates from marketing-focused social media managers. It splits operations between the United States and Belgium. Management plans to use new funding to expand staff and the product feature set and expects to double its roughly 30-person headcount in 2015. Financially, Sparkcentral reported revenue growth of 320% in 2014 year-over-year and a 100% increase in its customer base over the same period. The company tracks quarterly performance and notes an atypical MRR/ARR profile due to its large enterprise contracts. Sparkcentral (formerly TwitSpark) provides a platform to bring social customer service into the workflows of large enterprise call centers. The company targets large brands that need to monitor and manage complaints across social channels, and counts customers such as Delta. It launched its product in September 2012 and has signed up 35 customers in its first year, with customers paying a minimum of about $10,000 per year. Since its Series A lead investor closed roughly six weeks prior, the team has grown from six to 16 people. The company plans to use the new capital primarily for marketing, feature expansion and modest sales hires, and expects to complete its API by the end of the year. Its core business risk is whether it can scale customer adoption while protecting margins and demonstrating ROI by reducing call volume.

No current team members are available.