Catalyst portfolio company Weave, a customer experience management (CXM) platform, raised an additional $37.5 million in a Series C funding round. Catalyst participated in the round led by Lead Edge Capital along with other existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners, Crosslink Capital and Pelion Venture Partners.
Catalyst-backed MediaMath, a pioneer in programmatic advertising, announced an integrated set of initiatives designed to advance the next generation architecture for digital marketing. The company unveiled a range of investments in technology, people and relationships, as well as $225 million in new financing, to accelerate its mission to connect marketers with consumers in a manner that is more effective, efficient and trusted.
“In 2011, WeddingWire was our first Fund III investment and since the beginning, we benefitted from a great partnership with the Company’s management team,” said Ryan McNally, partner and co-founder of Catalyst Investors. “In the seven years that we have worked together, WeddingWire increased its revenues tenfold, expanded beyond the U.S. into 15 countries around the world, and grew to 950 employees. None of this would have happened without an exceptional management team. We wish them well as they continue to grow the business.”
Catalyst’s Brian Rich recently contributed an article to the PE HUB network on the importance of companies and entrepreneurs thinking like VCs.
Catalyst led a $20 million Series B round of funding for ChowNow, a SaaS ordering platform providing restaurants with online ordering tools and branded mobile apps. Existing investors including Steadfast Venture Capital also participated in the round. Catalyst partner Tyler Newton has joined ChowNow’s Board of Directors.
Envoy Global, the technology leader in global immigration and workforce management, raised $21 million in Series C financing and named Susan Bihler of Catalyst Investors to its Board of Directors. The new capital will expand Envoy’s go-to-market efforts and continued development of its global immigration services and software platform.
Weave provides voice, SMS, email and marketing services to dental and optometry offices. Its unified communications as a service (UCaaS) product combines VoIP phone service with a customer service application that integrates with customer data from existing practice management software to help manage patient reminders, initiate phone calls, engage in two-way texting, solicit customer reviews and other customer relationship management functions. The company serves more than 3,600 dentists and optometrists across the country.
Fundraising is a stressful process. You do all you can to impress prospective investors by honing the story, optimizing key metrics and making your company look as attractive as possible. But before you decide the amount of money you raise and the type of investor you want on board, you must decide the kind of relationship you intend to have with your new partner — what role they will assume and how you foresee working together. The question is, will you lead, follow or get out of the way?
“Fusion has built a reputation with its Fortune 500 customers as not only an exceptional risk management platform, but also as one of the tech industry’s top customer service practices,” said Ryan McNally, partner at Catalyst Investors. “The company is a clear leader in its space and is growing rapidly and profitably while gaining market share. The management team consists of world-class industry veterans with impressive track records of delivering enterprise-grade products to the largest corporate customers. We look forward to helping the company continue to gain market share, develop new products and expand internationally.”
“If you just looked at the company’s profile, it’s hitting its stride and had reached a certain level of scale,” says Ryan McNally, a partner at New York-based Catalyst Investors, which provides growth capital to later-stage companies. It had been looking at the broader space of tech-enabled service companies in governance, risk and compliance when it was introduced to Fusion last year.