Datahug, the business networking automation company, today announces the completion of its $3.2 million Series A financing from leading European venture capital firm, DFJ Esprit. The funding follows Datahug's significant market traction over the past twelve months, including double digit new client wins and expansion into the US.

Founded in 2010, Dublin based Datahug helps companies drive sales and business development. It does so by systematically pinpointing who knows who across a company's network of connections, allowing the business to tap into previously unknown relationships to fuel business development. Identifying relationships with business prospects through Datahug helps companies improve win ratios and shortens the sales cycle.
The solution works by indexing existing communication logs - such as emails, contacts and calendar data - to create an enterprise-wide picture of who knows who. Datahug then attributes a 'HugRank' score to show how well they know them. Because the system works with existing information it requires no data entry to capture the relationships and connections that exist, making it easy-to-use and placing no demands on staff time or resources.

DFJ Esprit's investment will enable Datahug to expand its reach in the US and beyond, and with it build on the company's already impressive customer base across a variety of industry sectors. Current customers include well-known names such as Grant Thornton, Plantronics, BDO and CPL. DFJ Esprit is also a user of the software. The deal is DFJ Esprit's fourth in Ireland this year, following investments in Imagine Communications, Mobile Travel Technologies, and the winner of the Irish Times Digital Challenge, GetBulb.

Connor Murphy, co-founder and CEO of Datahug, said: "Every employee in any company potentially knows someone that company wants to sell to - the challenge is having an automated, enterprise-wide way of finding out who knows who. It's this challenge that Datahug cracks. In an average company we find around 400 contacts per person that aren't captured in any CRM system or database. Through Datahug's technology we enable businesses to automatically tap into their existing relationship network for business development."

Connor Murphy continues: "DFJ Esprit is the perfect investor to support Datahug's development because of its close relationship with Silicon Valley, and unique expertise in taking European businesses global. This latest injection of finance will enable us to take advantage of the major market opportunity available to us, and continue at a rapid rate of growth."

Brian Caulfield, partner at DFJ Esprit, commented: "Datahug is completely transforming business development - we've already witnessed this to fantastic effect ourselves at DFJ Esprit. We see social enterprise as a major trend with global potential, and Datahug's approach to applying this to the sales arena is revolutionary. We look forward to supporting Datahug's international journey as we continue to back the next generation of disruptive startups in the global software market."

Datahug integrates with individual workflow so that users can access their business network whilst using Salesforce, Google, and LinkedIn. No matter where sales professionals are researching prospects, Datahug can give them immediate insights into connections they have with targeted accounts.

DFJ Esprit has over US$1.1 billion of funds under management, chiefly focused on European high growth companies. DFJ Esprit was a key investor in LOVEFiLM, which was successfully acquired by Amazon last year.