Participated · Equity · Nov 2018

Venafi is the inventor and market leader in machine identity management, securing machine-to-machine connections and communications. The company orchestrates cryptographic keys and digital certificates for SSL/TLS, SSH, code signing, mobile and IoT, providing global visibility of machine identities and the risks associated with them. Venafi puts that intelligence into action with automated remediation that reduces the security and availability risks tied to weak or compromised machine identities and prevents untrusted machine communications. The company holds more than 30 patents and delivers solutions for Global 5000 organizations and government agencies. Thoma Bravo announced a strategic growth investment valuing Venafi at $1.15 billion and said the capital will accelerate Venafi’s technology innovation and product development to capitalize on market momentum. Existing investors TCV and Foundation Capital will remain shareholders as Venafi pursues expanded growth and innovation in the machine identity management market. Venafi provides machine identity protection by orchestrating cryptographic keys and digital certificates for SSL/TLS, IoT, mobile and SSH, delivering visibility, intelligence and automated remediation. The platform gives enterprises global visibility of machine identities and the risks associated with them across on‑premises, virtual, cloud and IoT environments. Venafi says it protects machine identities for demanding Global 5000 customers, including top insurers, airlines, retailers and banks in multiple countries, and holds over 30 patents. The company plans to use new funding to accelerate growth, cement market leadership, and expand its machine identity ecosystem. As part of that strategy Venafi created the Machine Identity Protection Development Fund to accelerate integrations and sponsor third‑party developers, consultancies, systems integrators, startups, open source developers and cybersecurity vendors. Venafi emphasizes protecting machine identities across hardware, software, containers and virtual servers to reduce security and availability risks connected with weak or compromised machine identities. Venafi develops the Venafi Trust Protection Platform and related products (TrustAuthority, TrustForce, TrustNet) to discover, protect and manage cryptographic keys and digital certificates across networks, devices and the internet. Led by CEO Jeff Hudson, the company patrols SSL/TLS, SSH, WiFi, VPN and mobile keys to determine which are trusted, protect those that should be trusted, and fix or block those that are not. Its platform aims to eliminate blind spots from threats hidden in encrypted traffic and to help organizations know what’s "trusted" and "self." Customers include Global 5000 organizations across financial services, retail, insurance, healthcare, telecommunications, aerospace, manufacturing and high tech. The company said the new investment will accelerate development of the Venafi Trust Protection Platform and support its worldwide customer base. Venafi is based in Salt Lake City.

Participated · Series F · Jun 2018

Urban Airship began as a push-notification platform and has expanded to support email, SMS, mobile wallets and voice assistants, positioning itself as the platform to manage messaging and unify customer data across channels. Recent product additions include voice notifications on Amazon Alexa (in beta) and automated in-app messaging. The company has signed new enterprise customers including AMC, Magazine Luiza and Royal Automobile Club. Urban Airship says it has delivered more than two trillion messages, doubling the total from a year ago. CEO Brett Caine, who joined in 2014, said the company is currently breaking even. Management intends to use capital to accelerate global expansion and invest in emerging channels while emphasizing first-party, opt-in data amid growing privacy and regulatory discussion. Urban Airship is a Portland, Oregon-based provider of customer engagement solutions for brands. It offers a mobile relationship management platform that enables brands to build relationships with connected customers by streamlining the creation, delivery and management of targeted cross-platform mobile push messages, in-app messages, rich app pages, Apple Passbook passes and Google Wallet cards. The company closed a $21M Series D, bringing total funding to $67.6M to date. Backers in the round included August Capital, Foundry Group, Franklin Park Associates, QuestMark Partners, True Ventures and Verizon Ventures. Senior hires announced alongside the financing include Erin Hintz as chief marketing officer and Mike Musson as senior vice president of strategy and business development, while Brent Hieggelke moved to chief mobile evangelist. The company is led by CEO and president Brett Caine. Urban Airship offers a Mobile Relationship Management platform that helps brands build relationships with constantly connected customers. Its platform streamlines creation, delivery and management of targeted cross-platform mobile push messages, in-app messages, rich app pages, Apple Passbook passes and Google Wallet cards. Clients include large retail, media & entertainment, sports and travel & hospitality brands. Led by CEO Brett Caine, the company said it will use the new funding to grow globally. The business has raised a total of $58.7M to date. Urban Airship provides a mobile backend-as-a-service with products for push messaging, location-based push, and developer tools such as a PassTools API for Apple Passbook. The company has been expanding its focus beyond the backend to serve brand advertisers and build tools that let brands engage customers on mobile without full native apps. Urban Airship acquired Tello, the maker of a visual Passbook builder, and launched the PassTools API to support that strategy. The additional funding is earmarked to grow the marketing team, pursue international expansion, and grow its core location push-messaging business. Operationally, Urban Airship says it quadrupled push volumes and revenue during 2012 and doubled its staff. The company was on track for profitability as of Q1 2014. Urban Airship provides a back-end platform that lets developers integrate push notifications and in-app communications into mobile apps. The company serves customers including ESPN, LivingSocial, and Gowalla and is facilitating over 1 billion notifications per month to users on 300 million devices. Urban Airship reported API calls increased tenfold after Apple’s iOS 5 launch and said revenue grew 600% in 2011 as developers built its tools into tens of thousands of apps. Portland-based Urban Airship recently acquired SimpleGeo to add location infrastructure and expand its offerings for mobile developers; SimpleGeo’s assets enable more precise location-based targeting. The acquisition expanded the team to 51 and established a presence in the Bay Area. The company has about $26.1 million in total funding following its latest financing.

Participated · Equity · Jan 2017

InsideSales builds a sales-focused AI platform called Neuralytics, described as a predictive and prescriptive self-learning engine that advises salespeople when and how to contact prospects to increase sales. The product combines predictive analytics with prescriptive guidance to prioritize outreach and improve sales outcomes. The company raised a $50 million round in the reported financing, bringing total capital raised to over $250 million, and the CEO said the round was flat or nominally up from prior rounds. During a March 2015 announcement the company’s value was described as “north of $1 billion.” InsideSales is deepening a strategic partnership with Microsoft to gain access to product, go-to-market and partner teams, and is leveraging an investment from the Irish Strategic Investment Fund to gain entree into Europe, tap Irish academic data-science talent, and build a presence there. CEO Dave Elkington said he is not focused on an immediate acquisition or IPO but wants to ensure employees and investors are ultimately rewarded. InsideSales.com provides predictive analytics for sales teams through its Neuralytics big-data sales platform, which analyzes more than 14 billion sales interactions to produce predictive and prescriptive suggestions. The platform identifies the best leads and offers actionable guidance including how and when to contact prospects and which words to use to close deals. The company has sustained very strong revenue growth, doubled headcount to 600, and grown its customer base to more than 2,000 companies including ADP, Sprint, Fidelity, Microsoft, Groupon and Marketo. Founded in Utah in 2004, InsideSales has raised just over $200 million to date and is valued "north of $1 billion" per CEO Dave Elkington. Management plans to use new capital to expand support for the Salesforce and Microsoft platforms, serve larger enterprise customers, fuel international expansion and potentially pursue strategic acquisitions. The company also intends to add another 300–400 staff this year to scale operations and deepen its enterprise focus. InsideSales.com offers SaaS products—notably PowerDialer and mCall—that integrate with Salesforce to provide sales communications, gamification, predictive analytics and visualization. The company positions itself between marketing automation and CRM vendors to act as a sales acceleration platform. InsideSales reported 107% growth in the prior year and about 1,000 customers, including Fidelity, Microsoft, Groupon, McGraw-Hill and Marketo. Leadership says the new capital will fund product expansion, moves into new markets and possible acquisitions in the sales-acceleration space. The company is founded and headquartered in Provo, Utah. To date InsideSales has raised $143 million in total funding. InsideSales.com builds a predictive-analytics platform that tells inside-sales reps who to contact, when to contact them, and how to tailor messages. The company serves small and medium-sized businesses and earlier executive comments said customers increased from about 600 to 900 in August, though the company would not disclose a current total. Previously self-funded, InsideSales.com has 177 employees and anticipates growing to 350–400 people in 2013. Its algorithms and machine-influenced approach are positioned to professionalize inside sales and change traditional enterprise sales techniques. The article frames InsideSales.com as part of a growing group of enterprise SaaS companies that appear bound for significant exits such as IPOs or acquisitions. InsideSales.com builds big-data predictive analytics and sales force automation (SFO) technology that tells inside sales professionals who to contact, when to contact them, and how to tailor messages. The company plans to use the new funding to grow its SFO product and analytics capabilities. Before taking this round it was profitable and had not previously taken outside investment. InsideSales serves small and medium-sized businesses and has recently begun expanding into the enterprise market, winning customers such as Dell and ADP. The company has grown headcount from 65 to 140 employees and expanded its customer base from 600 to 900. InsideSales.com is based in Provo, Utah.

Led · Series B · Oct 2016

Social Tables provides a cloud-based collaborative event software platform that enables planners and properties to work together and manage events online. The platform supports event planning across a range of sizes, from small meetings and receptions to city-wide conventions. Customers include hospitality brands such as Hyatt Hotels, House of Blues and media like Forbes. The solution is used by more than 100,000 professionals across 4,300 customers, and the company employs more than 135 people. Social Tables closed a $13M Series B in 2016 and plans to use the proceeds to develop new products slated for launch in 2017. To date the company has raised $22.6M. SocialTables offers a collaborative event-planning platform and seating-arrangement tools that deliver sales and operations functionality for hotels, venues, and event planners. The product is used by both venue owners and party planners, with notable customers including Hyatt Hotel Corporation and Caesars Entertainment. The company reports 2,500 customers and 30,000 users, roughly two-thirds venue owners and one-third planners. Founded by Dan Berger, the platform evolved from clever seating software into broader hospitality SaaS aimed at streamlining event sales and operations. SocialTables plans to use new capital to better serve current customers and build additional hospitality products to drive efficiencies in the industry. The company previously raised $1.6 million before this round. Social Tables builds web-based software that creates 2D and 3D diagrams and seating arrangements to help event spaces design layouts and sell spaces to clients. Customers use the product both to plan events and to generate quick visual proposals for potential clients. The company reported revenue growth of 65% month-over-month since September 2012 and serves over 500 enterprise customers, including major hotel chains and museums. Headcount has grown from four employees to 18, and the team is actively hiring following the new funding. Founder and CEO Dan Berger will be taking a salary for the first time since founding the company. SocialTables provides an HTML5, browser-based platform (with iPad support) that lets planners create venue mockups, drag-and-drop guests, and collaborate on floorplans in real time. The system pulls social data from guest lists to help seat like-minded people or create deliberate matches. The product emphasizes a polished UI and non-linear collaboration so multiple users can edit simultaneously. The service is free to try, with enterprise versions available and pricing starting at $500 per event. The company has served roughly 3,500 events and over 100,000 guests, indicating early traction. Dan Berger founded the company at Fortify Ventures in DC, and Gary Vaynerchuk is listed as an adviser.

Led · Series C · Sep 2016

KeyMe builds and operates self-service smart kiosks that perform a variety of locksmith services, including duplication of brass keys and advanced electronic keys such as vehicle transponder and RFID keys. The kiosks leverage robotics and artificial intelligence to deliver convenient, accurate, and secure key creation. In addition to kiosks, KeyMe offers traditional locksmith services (lockouts, re-keys, complex installations and custom jobs) through KeyMe Locksmiths. The company currently serves over 10 million customers annually from a footprint of more than 3,000 kiosk locations across over 72 retailers, reaching consumers in 49 states. KeyMe says it is pursuing expanded services, international growth potential, and additional consumer and home services to build a trusted brand in the locksmith industry. The company has raised more than $150 million to date from institutional and strategic investors. KeyMe operates a network of smart kiosks that provide residential, commercial and vehicle key duplication services, and is led by CEO Greg Marsh. The kiosks copy keys in under 30 seconds and are deployed in over 2,300 locations across leading retailers in 46 states, including Acme, Albertsons, AutoZone, Bed Bath & Beyond, Kroger, Rite Aid and 7‑Eleven. Its iOS and Android apps enable customers to scan and save a digital copy of their key for on‑demand access. The company intends to use newly raised funds to expand kiosk presence in both new and existing retailers and to develop additional service offerings. KeyMe raised $50M in growth financing from funds managed by BlackRock; other investors include Battery Ventures, Comcast Ventures, Questmark Partners, River Park Ventures and White Star Capital. The kiosk footprint and mobile key‑backup capabilities support its retail partnerships and service expansion plans. KeyMe operates a network of smart kiosks that copy and share keys and a free iOS and Android app that lets customers save keys in the cloud and print them at kiosks. Its kiosks are available in major U.S. retailers including Bed, Bath & Beyond, Rite Aid, 7‑Eleven, Albertsons, Kmart, Mall of America, Safeway and Sears and can copy keys in under 30 seconds. The company was founded in 2012 by CEO Greg Marsh and is based in New York, NY. KeyMe intends to use proceeds to expand its kiosk footprint, adding on average more than 50 new kiosks per week and targeting more than 3,000 next‑generation kiosks in retailers by 2017. At the time of the report the company had raised a total of $70M to date. KeyMe builds tech-enabled retail kiosks that scan and duplicate physical keys, including the majority of automotive keys and transponder cloning. Its kiosks can produce lower-cost fob-style smart keys priced roughly $20–$60. Customers can save digitized versions of their keys to the KeyMe cloud so replacements can be printed without the original key present. The company is pursuing aggressive expansion to meet retailer demand for tens of thousands of new kiosks. KeyMe says it aims to disrupt a claimed $7.5 billion-per-year key-copying industry by offering convenience and lower prices. Recent fundraising activity supports that growth plan and wider kiosk deployment. KeyMe provides digital key scanning and duplication through mobile apps and in‑store kiosks, shipping copies or printing them instantly. It handles regular house keys and car keys with transponder chips. The company uses AI and neural networks to classify key blanks, which it says yields single‑digit error rates versus 15–20% for traditional locksmiths. Kiosk access to saved keys requires a fingerprint scan for security. KeyMe previously raised $2.3M in seed funding and $7.8M in a Series A; it has now completed a $20M Series B. The company currently operates about 100 in‑store kiosks and plans to deploy 1,000 more this year and 10,000 over the next 36 months, with retail partners including Sears, Kmart, Bed Bath & Beyond, Rite Aid, Lowe’s, Albertsons, Ahold USA and 7‑Eleven.