Mobilize, the first network relationship management platform, announced its Series A investment round and publicly launched the self-service version of its product today to build the future of group communications. The $6.5M round was led by Trinity Ventures and joined by Floodgate Ventures, Hillsven Capital, Array Ventures, Upwest Labs in addition to SaaS angels such as Eoghan McCabe, CEO of Intercom.io, and Sanjay Subhedar. Solving the huge challenges of organizing and communicating with large external groups, Mobilize is a comprehensive communication solution optimized to help companies manage and motivate external groups such as on-demand workers, developer groups, contractors, resellers, and influencers.
In the past year while still in stealth mode, Mobilize worked with leading brands such as Microsoft, Docker, Etsy, MakerFaire, The United Nations, MasterCard, Salesforce, and Prezi as design partners. These companies as well as just over 100 others have adopted Mobilize to allow over 5,000 network managers to manage over a quarter of a million global partners. Mobilize has now launched a self-service version of the platform to enable all organizations to benefit from the power of an optimized group management platform.
“There are over a billion groups active today. Group communications solutions such as Google, Yahoo and Facebook have not evolved to meet their needs for situations where the communications are mission critical and not just casual chatter,” said Ajay Chopra, general partner at Trinity Ventures. “The Mobilize team has seized on this business opportunity and taken group communications to the next level with a well-thought out platform optimized for effective group communication. Think of this as ‘Slack for external communications’ to actually get stuff done! The company’s rapid adoption by leading brands was proof to us of this unmet need.”
“In the new economy, companies and organizations increasingly rely on large numbers of people outside their organization to achieve their missions. Groups have become business-critical and there is a growing need for group communication within every business,” said Sharon Savariego, CEO and cofounder of Mobilize. “We saw the group communication tools that existed were designed for small social groups but not adequate for professional organizers, so we created a dynamic platform enabling anyone to organize, motivate and lead their various groups toward action. The platform is flexible enough to support groups as diverse as brand ambassadors, developer networks, marketplace sellers, resellers, product beta testers and many more. With this new investment, we will be expanding our teams in both San Francisco and Tel Aviv and will develop additional capabilities and partner integrations to further empower our Mobilize networks. ”
Key Features of the Mobilize Platform:
- One centralized contact database is the “system of record” for all members1. Two-sided: Members can always access and update their profile information2. Flexible structure for groups and sub-groups to segment into cohorts dynamically and deliver custom communication3. Powerful APIs allow integration into the most important business tools
- Unified communication center with all the tools you need to mobilize your network1. Email, SMS, events, calendars, surveys and polls2. Members receive communications in the most effective and frictionless way for them3. Easy for the leader to use and get up and running quickly
- Powerful analytics and follow-up mechanisms to track success and optimize participation. Current users have reached unprecedented engagement rates such as over 75% open rates and 55% reply rates.
In addition to announcing the funding round, Mobilize is building out its business team and has brought Laura Yecies onboard as Chief Operating Officer. As a serial tech entrepreneur, Yecies recently was CEO of SugarSync, Catch.com and Context Engines. Prior to her own companies, she led sales and marketing teams at CheckPoint, Yahoo! Mail and Netscape. “I have always been excited by the power and impact of new communication tools,” said Laura Yecies. “Mobilize has the potential to create and lead an enormous group communication market that’s growing quickly driven by the increasing importance of network-driven businesses. The time is perfect for a new category of Network Relationship Management products that we estimate to be over $65 billion in value and I am excited to help the Mobilize team lead this new category.”
Mobilize was founded based on the observation that businesses have transformed how they create products, provide services and scale globally leveraging external networks of people. In the new economy, traditional pipeline business are overtaken by marketplace platforms, network relationships are fundamental, and Mobilize is a platform optimized to motivate and manage these networks.
About Mobilize
Mobilize is a network relationship management platform enabling companies to effectively build, communicate across, and manage external groups. For more information, please visit www.mobilize.io, our product page or tutorial video.