A daily newsletter summarizing recent activity & interesting start-ups globally
RECENT NOTABLE ACTIVITY – FIELD FORCE AUTOMATION
- Handshake, A mobile sales and B2B eCommerce platform which also helps Field Sales teams in order management raised $14M. Link
- Librestream, An on-site mobile video collaboration solutions for energy, field service, manufacturing, and public sector industries raises C$11M ($8.3M). Link
- Clovis Capital Management Lp buys $15.1 Million stake in PTC Inc (PTC). Link
SOME INTERESTING STARTUPS FOUND
PlanwithPlank (2015, Toronto) – Artificial Intelligence based scheduling tool. Uses linear and mixed-integer modeling, constraint/logic-based programming and constraint-based local search to provide optimized scheduling and route planning.
LEADER BOARD – FIELD FORCE AUTOMATION
Suite – Field Service
Astea (1979, Horsham, IPO) – Provides applications for lead generation, project quotation, service and billing, and asset retirement services for specific businesses requirements like campaigns, depot repair, field service, logistics, projects, field sales. It also offers infrastructure tools and services. Went public in 1995.
ClickSoftware Technologies (1996, Burlington, IPO, Acq.) – Provides service optimization suite of solutions with features for service scheduling and routing by balancing resources and organizational preferences, performance measurements etc. Went public in 2000. Acquired by Francisco Partners in 2015.
Suite – Field Service – CrowdSourced
FieldNation (2008, Minneapolis, $30M) – It is an online work platform for connecting businesses and workers.A Self-service web portal is used to find, manage and pay workers for any specific job on demand. Gives businesses a dashboard to see and track the progress of the project and communicate with workers while workers can find work, receive and track work details and receive payments. Backed by Susquehanna Growth Equity.
Suite – Field Service – Home Services
ServiceTitan (2012, Glendale, $18M) – Provides service and sales management software for services businesses. includes CRM, scheduling, dispatch, reporting, marketing management tools, mobile connectivity for field techs, GPS, Quickbooks integration and more. Backed by BVP, Mucker Capital, I2BF Digital, and AMENALAV Group.
Jobber (2011, Edmonton, $7M) – Provides CRM, task & calendar management, job tracking, crew scheduling, automated quoting, invoicing, time tracking, including chemical tracking (as required in certain jurisdiction) QuickBooks integration and more. Backed by Point Nine Capital, Version One and OMERS ventures.
Suite – Field Service – Oil & Gas
LiquidFrameworks (2001, Houston, $5M) – Provides field management solutions for energy and environmental industry, streamlining processes between operations, field personnel, and accounting reducing DSO (Days Sales Outstanding). Features include sales quotes, equipment and personnel tracking, scheduling and dispatching, service tickets, domain specific functionality for oilfield, industrial and environmental operator and services companies. Backed by Houston Ventures.
Suite – Construction
Procore Technologies (2003, Carpinteria, $101M) – SaaS based tool for construction project management, provides a mobile app for bidding, document management, budgeting, creating RFIs and managing contracts. Backed by Iconic Capital and Bessemer Venture Partners.
Vela Systems (2005, Burlington, $22M, Acq.) – App for Jobsite worker to access documents and to complete QA/QC inspections, worklists, punch lists, field reports etc. Backed by Launchpad Venture, Common Angels, CommonWealth Capital Ventures. Acquired by Autodesk in 2012.
Suite – Sales
Spring Mobile Solutions (2001, Seattle, $78M) – Provides SaaS-based solution for field sales marketing and distribution teams with features to plan routes for sales and delivery, messaging and collaboration, sales materials, territory management etc. Backed by Goldman Sachs, NEA, Sapphire Ventures.
Clari (2012, Mountain View, $26M) – Mobile app for sales personnel which enables sales managers and sales ops teams to view deal progress in real-time along with predictive analytics. Backed by Sequoia, Bain Capital, NorthGate Capital.
Collaboration – Document Management
Plangrid (2011, SF, $59M) – Plangrid is an application to store and publish construction document and plans in the cloud and publish changes so that all the users can get updated instantly. A Y-Combinator company backed by GV, Founders Fund, Sequoia, Navitas Capital and 500 startups.
Collaboration – Images & Video
Librestream (2003, Winnipeg, $21M) – Provides on site video collaboration solutions to service businesses. Provides features for sharing audio and video, circling and marking areas that need attention, adjusting lighting, and capturing still images and more. Backed by Emerald Technology Ventures, BDC and GrowthWorks Ventures.
Collaboration – Smart Glass
APX Labs (2010, Herndon, $29M) – Provides software platform Skylight SDK that companies use to create smart glasses applications.Used to sell optical wearable technologies to the military for applications ranging from connecting soldiers to unmanned aerial vehicles to tele-medical applications for medics in the field; before it focused on industrial applications. Backed by Salesforce, GE Ventures, NextGen Angels and others.
Atheer (2011, Mountain View, $28M) – Helps use their Augmented Interactive Reality (AIR) technology to enable interaction between humans. Primarily focused on increasing productivity in industries by overlaying digital information in workers visual space and thus enabling gesture based interaction. Focussed on field services, healthcare, oil & gas and warehousing industries. Backed by Mindful Ventures, Signature Capital, Flextronics Lab IX and others.
Reporting & Data Collection
ProntoForms (2001, Ottawa, $33M, IPO) – Platform for field personnels to help in data collection, surveys, inspections with features for customization, work orders etc. Backed by Jefferson Partners, BDC Capital, Skypoint Capital Corp and others. Went public on Canadian Venture Exchange in 2005.
Canvas (2008, Reston, $23M) – Allows businesses to customize and publish data on mobile devices. Applications from Canvas’ App store can be used for improving their business productivity or use Canvas’ app builder to custom create their own apps meeting their business needs. Backed by Motorola, Camber Capital and others.
Reporting & Data Collection – Order Management
HandShake (2010, NYC, $23.5M) – Sales order management platform that lets your team write and receive orders on the iPad, iPhone and Web. Handshake is used globally by sales reps and teams selling B2B, to present their catalog, manage their customers and streamline their order fulfillment process. Backed by SoftTech VC, Point Nine, Emergence Capital Partners and others.
Reporting & Data Collection – Home Services
Gigwalk (2010, SF, $18M) – Provides crowdsourced field data collection as well as app for field workforce management and data collection for enterprises. Backed by Nokia Growth Partners, Greylock, August Capital, Soft Tech Ventures and Harrison Metal.
Productivity Tools – Sales
MobileForce Software (2005, Sunnyvale, $13M) – Cloud-based customer relationship optimization cand enterprise mobility company that helps enterprises optimize customer engagement and productivity by connecting field personnel with information at the right time across devices. The solution connects cloud and on-premise enterprise applications and data sources, to deliver contextually-relevant user experiences. Backed by eLab Ventures.
Productivity Tools – Home Services
HouseCall (2013, San Diego, $9M) – An App and Online marketplace that connects users to curated service professionals from your neighborhood. Homeowners can order everything from an electrician, emergency plumber, housekeeper to tech support. Select the service you need, view picture profiles, ratings, schedules and prices, book and pay online with credit card. Customers can find both scheduled and on-demand services. Backed by August Capital and others.
Leader board includes all the top funded, IPO and successfully running bootstrapped companies along with their location, founding year and funding amount.
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