This morning, District-based
Contactually announces $2 million in additional seed round funding, bringing the company's total seed round raise to $3.5 million. The previous part of the round was raised in March 2013 and included investments from Point Nine Capital, 500 Startups and Boston Seed. The current funding is provided locally by previous investors, the
Crystal Tech Fund,
Middle Bridge Partners,
Middleland Capital, as well as a new type of funding model,
the AngelList Syndicate.
"We didn't need a big influx of capital," Alexandra Gibson, vice president of marketing for Contactually, says, on the reason for extending the seed round, rather than raising a Series A round. "We'll likely go Series A in the next 12 months."
Contactually is a customer relationship management system for small and medium-size businesses that pulls contacts from users' networks to create one centralized address book, and then reminds users when it's time to get back in touch. Gibson says, "[our] market is [small to medium-size businesses] that are underserved—that get most of their business from relationships, either because of a long business cycle, or because they get business from referrals or from projects that repeat. [These are businesses] that don't want to fall out of touch."
Under the direction of founding team Zvi Band (CEO), Tony Cappaert (COO) and Jeff Carbonella (CTO), Contactually has grown from 12 employees in July 2013 to its current roster of 40. "We expect to be at 90 by this time next year," Gibson says. She anticipates hiring to fill eight positions by the end of the year.
The projected hiring is in anticipation of continued strong customer acquisition. "We currently have 7,500 customers in 100 countries," says Gibson. That number was "under 3,000 a year ago."
With all that growth, Contactually needed a new physical space in which to operate. The company recently relocated to the 5,500-square-foot space at 7th Street and New York Avenue that formerly housed LivingSocial.
"We wanted to be a part of the new D.C. Tech corridor," Gibson says. "We're strong proponents of staying in D.C. Investors will [sometimes] require companies to move out to Mountain View or Palo Alto. We won't accept funding with those strings attached."