Contatta, the visionary new CRM company co-founded by Pat Sullivan of ACT! and SalesLogix acclaim, today announced it has completed a $3.25 million financing round led by Kickstart Seed Fund II and Grayhawk Venture Fund II. All of Contatta's current board members reinvested in this round, including Grayhawk which invested $400K in the first round and $1 million in this second round, bringing total financing to $6.4 million to-date. Contatta will use the funds for development and marketing expansion in preparation for its launch.

'We invested in Contatta because it is tackling a critical need for salespeople to have all of their tools in one place and easily connect with customers, prospects and team members,' said Clarke Miyasaki, General Partner, Kickstart. 'An unintended result of the outdated systems on the market today is that most salespeople simply don't like to use them very much. Contatta changes all of that with a simple and sophisticated solution that scales infinitely.'

Kickstart, which is making its first investment in Contatta, is a seed fund whose mission is to kickstart companies in Utah and Arizona by aligning technology creators, industry, entrepreneurs and capital sources behind the funding and mentoring of seed investments.

'With its market leading vision and top-notch management team, we believe Contatta is poised to capitalize on the enormous market opportunity in CRM,' said Brian Smith, Managing Director at Grayhawk Capital. 'Our extensive due diligence verified that Contatta has a very strong product, deep technology and an experienced management team with proven ability to build a very large business. Those strengths, coupled with the new capital being raised, position the company for extraordinary success.'

Grayhawk Capital is the Southwest's leading venture capital firm investing in early to growth stage companies in the information technology industry. Grayhawk looks for innovative technology companies in the mobile, security, cloud/SaaS, business intelligence, financial and healthcare markets.

'This funding from smart investors gives Contatta the ability to begin to challenge the CRM status quo,' said Pat Sullivan, CEO of Contatta. 'Contatta succeeds where other CRM fail. Gone are the days when management has to impose a bloated system on sales teams. Salespeople want to love using their CRM, and we think they will love using Contatta.'

Solid CRM Foundation

Sullivan has twice been awarded the coveted Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year award. He has also been recognized as one of the 80 Most Influential People in sales and marketing history and one of the 10 most influential people in CRM by Sales and Marketing Management Magazine.

A champion of the local Phoenix Silicon Desert technology community, Sullivan was named a 'Tech Titan' by Phoenix Business Journal, 'Leader of the Year' by the Arizona Software Association in 2000 and presented with the 'Pioneer of the Year Award' by that same association in 2002.

Sullivan is joined by co-founders Adam Ross and Patrick Sullivan Jr. who bring more than 30 years of combined CRM experience in the areas of Sales, Product Design and Marketing Automation. Contatta's board of directors currently includes such business luminaries as Roy Vallee, Former CEO and Chairman of the Board, Avnet; Mark Templeton, CEO, Citrix; Brian Smith, Grayhawk Capital; Raymond Croghan, Croghan Investments & Board Director, Crocs and Clarke Miyasaki, General Partner, Kickstart.

Contatta's Vision - Simple. Sophisticated. CRM.

The first time Sullivan created sales software, 6 million salespeople paid for ACT! out of their own pockets. So what did the Godfather of CRM do when he realized his own CRM of choice was email? He reinvents CRM. Led by Sullivan's vision, Contatta's team of 17 employees have over 150 years of combined CRM experience and intend to lead the market by building a product that delivers on its mission: Simple. Sophisticated. CRM. Simple enough for salespeople to love, yet highly sophisticated to give partners and IT departments a powerful customization platform.

For the Contatta team, two things were clear: First, the top CRM used by sales teams is their email. Second, it's not their fault they don't like their CRM systems. The fact is, sales teams don't hate using software -- they hate CRM software that takes up more of their time without helping them sell more.

Contatta will lead the CRM market by:

Consolidating all work platforms used by sales teams into one simple, streamlined system they'll want to use because it improves their work life.

Introducing a new, unmatched collaboration environment that completely tears down the walls between sales teams and customers, giving them a new way to get closer than ever before.

Bringing customization and affordability back to CRM in a landscape littered with old, bloated, expensive, hard to use CRM systems salespeople don't find useful.

About

Founded with the purpose of creating a CRM system that sales teams will actually love to use, Contatta has already generated buzz among industry insiders and influencers in the technology community.

Contatta's mission is to lead the CRM market by creating a whole new way for sales teams to engage their prospects and customers, going beyond traditional CRM and social media tools. In short, giving sales teams a CRM they'll want to use because it saves time and makes it easier for them to do what they want to do most -- sell more.

Located in Phoenix's Silicon Desert, Contatta is the alternative to the CRM status quo. Please join the conversation at www.contatta.com or on Facebook, LinkedIn and on Twitter @Contatta or read our blog, Good Selling.