OEN Member NewsBeaverton software maker RFPIO Inc. lands $25M from K1 (Portland Business Journal)
Portland’s summer of funding continues to gain steam.
Beaverton software maker RFPIO Inc. said Tuesday it has collected a $25 million investment from K1 Investment Management LLC. It’s the largest round yet for the young company and significantly ups the ante from a $1.5 million seed round received two years ago.
RFPIO will use the funds to scale the company and add employees across departments, particularly in sales and marketing. It will also further expand globally.
“We are super optimistic for the opportunities ahead for the company and the team,” said co-founder and CEO Ganesh Shankar. “We have built a very strong company and have a great team. The foundation elements for the company for success are already in place.”
RFPIO makes software used by customers to automate and streamline their ability to respond to Request for Proposals. Using RFPIO’s tools, client can import RFPs and export responses to issuers. Clients can better track documents, ensuring that employees who need to provide input are doing so.
Earlier this year, the company introduced artificial intelligence capabilities to the software.
Shankar said RFPs typically fail due to outdated content, unanswered questions and when the right subject matter expert isn’t included in the response process.
“The application gets more intelligent and can learn and recommend what can be the best answer,” he said. “(Customers) are global companies with employees across the world. They might not know the right person to contact in another office.”
RFPIO employs 50 workers split, roughly, between the headquarters in Beaverton and an engineering office in Coimbatore, India.
Shankar expects to build out a mid-management tier to join his existing executive team as the company scales.
The company has grown quickly, moving into its fifth office — in Beaverton’s City Hall — in 18 months earlier this year.
This is the third Portland area investment for K1. The firm has worked with digital archiving firm Smarsh Inc. for about 10 years, having recently acquired a majority stake. Last year, K1 bought a competitor it’s now merging with Smarsh.
In 2015, K1 invested in legal software maker Zapproved LLC.
“RFPIO’s unique technology has raised the bar on what users expect from proposal response software,” said K1 Managing Partner Hasan Askari in a written statement. “We’ve seen the company more than triple its customer base and revenue and have tremendous confidence in management’s long-term vision.”
RFPIO has hundreds of customers, including Google LLC, Adobe Systems Inc., Atlassian Corp. and LinkedIn Corp. Local customers that have helped it grow include Smarsh, Zapproved, Jama Software Inc., Janrain Inc., Metal Toad Inc. and Viewpoint Inc.
The summer has teemed with large Portland tech funding rounds. The largest was $200 million to Jama Software. Others include:
Marketing software maker Urban Airship Inc. raised $25 million.
IT automation software maker Puppet Inc. raised $42 million.
Fintech startup Bumped Inc. raised $14 million.
Smart device company Rigado Inc. raised $15 million.
Source: www.bizjournals.com
