Internet of Things company, Automile, which helps companies increase productivity in their fleets, announced today that it has raised $6.2 million to further accelerate its growth. Jason Lemkin and his new SaaStr Fund led the round, with support from existing investors Dawn Capital and Christoph Janz, an early-stage investor in Zendesk, and his Point Nine Capital fund. New investors in the round include Twitch founder, Justin Kan, along with Skype founder, Niklas Zennström, and Pingdom founder, Sam Nurmi.
One of Silicon Valley's most influential thought leaders and co-founder of multiple successful startups, Jason Lemkin has driven venture capital investments in many leading enterprise and SaaS startups. Collectively, his investments have grown to be worth more than $1 billion in less than two years. Before SaaStr and VC investing, Lemkin was CEO and co-founder of EchoSign, the web's most popular electronic signature service, from inception through its acquisition by Adobe Systems Inc.
In the last 12 months, Automile has grown to serve thousands of businesses accounting for tens of thousands of seats as more companies seek its automated, cloud-based and connected technology solutions to address common challenges in their vehicle fleets. In the last three months alone, the company has grown steadily, with a 15 percent increase in month-by-month recurring revenue, while the market for IoT technology solutions like those offered by Automile will continue to grow to $30 billion by 2018. In addition, over 80 percent of the businesses trying out Automile's free 60-day trial convert into paying clients.
Lemkin commented, 'The IoT space has enabled new SaaS startups to leverage a global opportunity to combine commoditized sensors with analytics, offering an entirely new toolset for progressive companies to solve their daily pain points out in the field. Automile has pioneered a new way to help these companies leverage the promise of IoT to address their most critical business challenges and gain the insights they need to continually improve their operations.'
'Automile has broken new ground and introduced a level of automation never seen before, helping more businesses finally replace their outdated, error-prone and time-consuming processes with advanced IoT offerings,' said Jens Nylander, CEO and founder of Automile. 'As we continue to see so much momentum for our solutions, it is clear the market wants more. This latest investment will help us meet growing demand, while enabling us to further push the limits of what automated fleet technology can do.'
Nylander continued, 'We are especially grateful to have the guidance of Jason Lemkin, who will be joining our board with this investment. A true leader in the technology space, Jason has founded and helped high-growth SaaS startups to advance; with his support, we can continue building momentum and brand awareness for Automile.'
About Automile
Automile is an Internet of Things (IoT) company building services targeted for businesses with vehicles and drivers, delivered through innovative, cloud-based, mobile-optimized and design-first experiences. Automile helps to solve common pain points around maintaining compliance, reducing fuel consumption, decreasing risks and increasing productivity. By leveraging the sensors in smartphones or via the Automile Box, businesses can easily and efficiently manage their vehicles and realize cost savings quickly. Businesses can sign up to try Automile for free.