Sparkcentral, the leading enterprise digital customer engagement platform, today announced $20 million in new funding. In support of its successful international growth, the round was led by the European venture capital fund LRM, with Group MC and existing investors Split Rock Partners and Jackson Square Ventures also participating. This brings the company's total venture funding to $37.5 million.
This latest investment will drive Sparkcentral's expansion throughout the EMEA region, fuel product innovation, and help expand the company's global team. The funding also signals the rapid growth of the digital customer relationship market, estimated to reach $17.92 billion by 2019 as enterprises seek to meet the changing demands of their mobile-first customer base.
'Companies that partner with us recognize that today's consumers, especially those who are younger, expect to be able to use their modern, digital communication channels instead having to call a company to fix a service issue,' said Davy Kestens, CEO of Sparkcentral. 'The opportunity to revolutionize and future-proof servicing strategies for the world's biggest brands is incredibly exciting and, as we see it, the market for offering full-resolution mobile customer service is wide open.'
In the months ahead, Sparkcentral expects to gain even more traction with global consumer brands motivated to evolve their current customer service offerings and update aging legacy contact center technology that no-longer supports the way customers want to communicate with companies today.
'LRM, has made an additional investment of $10 million in Sparkcentral because we believe in the growth potential of this company,' said Stijn Bijnens, CEO of LRM. 'Sparkcentral is the number one player in this fast growing digital customer engagement market and this investment provides the company sufficient means to strengthen its position in the EMEA region. With Sparkcentral's European headquarters at Corda Campus, Hasselt, we also see this investment as an opportunity to anchor this promising company in our region.'
During the past year, Sparkcentral's was named the 2016 CODiE Award winner for Best Customer Service Solution and has continued to add customer-centric brands like Zappos, Direct Energy, Francesca's, Goodbaby, Qdoba and Slack to its existing client roster which includes T-Mobile, WestJet, Uber, Discover, Netflix, Delta Air Lines, Emirates, and Western Union. The strategic hire of Christoph Neut -- former Chief Commercial Officer of a $400 million revenue generating software company -- as VP EMEA, the launch of Sparkcentral support for secure in-app messaging, Facebook Messenger and WeChat, and the release of industry-first customer identification capabilities with Sparkcentral's Secure Authentication added to the company's momentum.
About LRM:
The regional investment fund LRM is a European evergreen fund that manages over 400 million euros. LRM targets all sectors and companies, from starting companies to growing SMEs and larger businesses.
Our team focuses on ICT, Technology, Health & Care, Smart Manufacturing and Sustainability. We currently have a portfolio of 150 companies, such as ReStore, Cobelguard, SparkCentral, Cegeka, Trendminer and Ridley Bikes. One of our portfolio companies, Punch Powertrain, resulted in 2016 in a billion dollar exit. More info: www.lrm.be
About Split Rock Partners
Split Rock Partners is focused on investing in leading software and Internet services companies. We invest across all stages of company development, providing capital through flexible investment strategies including primary investments, direct secondary, and blended structures. Our objective is to support exceptional management teams and creatively address the challenges of financing growth. The Split Rock team manages over $1 billion of committed capital and is currently investing from two funds totaling $575 million.
About Jackson Square Ventures
Jackson Square Ventures (JSV) is an all-partner venture capital firm focused on Series A financings for SaaS and marketplace startups from our offices in the heart of the innovation ecosystem in San Francisco at Jackson Square. At JSV, all partners are former founders or tech executives and we use our operational experience to support entrepreneurs in building lasting businesses. We have done this with Equallogic and Responsys, resulting in billion-dollar exits, and are now supporting DocuSign, OfferUp and many other fast-growing startups. You can learn about our portfolio and our partners at jsv.com. Follow us on Twitter @jsv_vc.
About Group MC
Group MC is a European family-owned investment company that focuses on private equity, green energy and real estate. For our private equity portfolio, we take substantial minority stakes in both starting and mature companies, whereby our focus is led by the management and the products.
About Sparkcentral
Sparkcentral is the leading digital customer engagement platform. Customer-obsessed companies use Sparkcentral to manage and resolve customer service interactions over modern communication channels in a simple, streamlined and fun way. With the fastest customer routing and prioritization technology in the business and innovative workflow optimization and reporting tools, Sparkcentral helps global brands like T-Mobile, Delta Air Lines, Uber, Nordstrom, JetBlue and Zappos deliver effortless customer service experiences and drive brand loyalty. A recent CODiE Award winner for Best Customer Service Solution, Sparkcentral is headquartered in San Francisco, CA and has its EMEA headquarters in Hasselt, Belgium.