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Parsable Scores $60M Series D Financing

2020-08-11
SAN FRANCISCO, CA, Parsable, the Connected Worker Platform company, today announced it has raised $60 million in a Series D round.
With this new funding, Parsable will be able to accelerate its growth including Asia, EMEA and Latin America; invest in its rapidly expanding network of global partners and integrations; and further deepen the enterprise depth and capabilities of its platform, with the ultimate goal of increasing safety, productivity and quality output for essential industrial frontline workers.

New investors Activate Capital and Glade Brook Capital Partners co-led the round. New investors Alumni Ventures Group, Cisco Investments, Downing Ventures, Evolv Ventures and Princeville Capital also participated. The round also includes broad support from existing financial investors Lightspeed Venture Partners, Future Fund and B37 Ventures, as well as continuing strategic investments from the investment groups at Honeywell and Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures. This latest round brings Parsable's total funding to date in excess of $133 million.

This level of investment is a testament to the market opportunity and a validation that Parsable's highly secure, enterprise-scale platform approach is what the market desires as opposed to using point solutions.

The Parsable Connected Worker Platform provides modern digital tools that help connect frontline workers to the experts, information, systems and machines necessary to drive safety, productivity and quality in industrial and manufacturing operations.

Parsable customers include iconic companies such as Corteva Agriscience, Grupo Bimbo, Georgia-Pacific, Henkel, Shell, Suntory and Yara, in addition to many other leading global producers in consumer packaged goods (CPG) manufacturing, paper and packaging, transportation, and energy. The company's Connected Worker Platform is globally deployed and has users in more than 130 countries, and is available in 14 languages.

"Parsable is a key part of our overall digital initiative and our strategic plan to equip our employees with the right digital technologies to unlock new levels of transparency, consistency and collaboration. As industrial automation becomes more prevalent within our business, having that seamless connection between our human workers, machines and systems is critical, and this is where Parsable plays a leadership role," said Raul Obregon, chief information and transformation officer, Grupo Bimbo.

The mobile-first Parsable Connected Worker Platform guides frontline workers and their activities through digital, rich-media standard work procedures, enables real-time and remote collaboration, and triggers automated actions in business systems and machines. Companies can then collect and analyze powerful new data on frontline work, including adherence to safety and quality criteria. As a result, organizations can quickly and more accurately measure work execution, continuously improve work processes, and accelerate efficiencies and operational excellence across multiple teams and sites at scale.

Over the past year, Parsable has rapidly expanded its worldwide footprint and usage, including:

-11x year-over-year global growth in registered users
-180 percent year-over-year global growth in sites deployed
-190 percent year-over-year global growth in safety use cases deployed
-155 percent global growth in completed safety-related work procedures by CPG customers between March 2020 and May 2020, during the early height of the COVID-19 pandemic

"Activate was founded in 2017 to invest in innovative companies using digital solutions to transform the industrial economy for a more connected, intelligent and resilient future. After 18 months surveying the landscape of digital platforms for procedures and the 'connected worker,' we identified Parsable as the clear market leader," said David Lincoln, managing partner, Activate Capital. "As companies accelerate their IIoT adoption and digital transformation, we see Parsable as the leader in connected, intelligent operations. We are excited to join the team and be part of their growth." Lincoln will join Parsable's board of directors.

"Glade Brook is pleased to co-lead Parsable's Series D financing. Parsable is the leader in SaaS empowering the connected worker in manufacturing and industrial environments," said Paul Hudson, founding partner and chief investment officer, Glade Brook Capital Partners. "We believe Parsable is well positioned to grow into a category defining software business and deliver extraordinary ROI to its customers and partners." Hudson will join Parsable's board of directors.

Lorrissa Horton, vice president and general manager of WebEx Teams at Cisco, will join as an observer on the Parsable board of directors.

Ensuring the Long-term Resilience of Global Supply Chains

More than 48% of respondents in a recent World Economic Forum (WEF) survey of the world's top risk experts said they were most worried about a disruption of global supply chains as a result of the health pandemic. Another WEF report states that the COVID-19 crisis has impacted more than 75% of the world's manufacturing outputs. Parsable is a member of the WEF and an active participant in its Shaping the Future of Advanced Manufacturing and Production Platform.

"Despite these uncertain times, achieving this amount of funding proves that forward-thinking companies and the investment community are bullish about the criticality of human industrial workers in the world economy. Empowering frontline workers with modern, accessible yet powerful digital tools to increase safety, performance and quality is essential to the long-term resilience and flexibility of our supply chains," said Lawrence Whittle, Parsable CEO.

Whittle continued: "Legacy systems and point solutions simply aren't built for the type of agility and scale that is now necessary to achieve operational excellence. The Parsable Connected Worker Platform ticks all the requirements for flexibility, comprehensiveness, ease of use, and rapid time to value, and we're excited for this next level of massive global growth."

"We are at a tipping point in the digitalization of supply chain and manufacturing processes. These unprecedented times have accelerated the rise of a new, digital-first 'normal.' By connecting its Connected Worker Platform to Microsoft Teams, Parsable has redefined the way global industrial companies and frontline teams work together and leverage data across the entire supply chain," said Çağlayan Arkan, vice president manufacturing, Microsoft. Parsable's Frontline Work Connector for Microsoft Teams enables the collaboration between Microsoft Teams users and industrial workers on the manufacturing floor or out in the field, empowering them to easily access and share the information they need to get their jobs done right.

Ushering in a New Wave of Enterprise Connectivity and Collaboration

"We see enormous potential in advancing safety and worker productivity in industrial workplaces around the world," said Jonathan Meltzer, principal, Alumni Ventures Group. "We believe Parsable is a leader in its field and are extremely pleased to support the company's growth plans."

"Right now, more than ever, investable companies need to prove that they're relevant and will be for decades to come," said Warren Rogers, partner, Downing Ventures. "The market opportunity for Parsable includes every person in a job that is not behind a desk - that's 2.7 billion people around the world. We're thrilled to support Parsable's mission to solve the immediate skills gap challenge resulting from a rapidly retiring industrial workforce, as well as fill the enduring need to improve the frontline worker experience through enhanced safety, productivity and connectivity."

"A digital transformation is sweeping through the CPG industry, and like Parsable, Evolv Ventures and Kraft Heinz are looking to stay at the cutting edge of industrial technologies that will make us, as well as many other companies with industrial operations, more nimble, efficient and safe," said Bill Pescatello, managing partner, Evolv Ventures. "Parsable is a true leader in connected worker platforms and by providing the digital tools industrial workers need to make critical data-based decisions, they are having a real impact on factory floors and warehouses around the world."

"Princeville Capital is impressed with Parsable's leading role in accelerating digital transformation in large industrial customers as part of its position in the Industry 4.0 revolution. By enabling workers with streamlined tools, industrial customers can vastly improve energy efficiency, waste reduction and overall decarbonization. We look forward to joining this journey with Parsable," said Eric Kosmowski, managing partner, Princeville Climate Technology Fund.

For more information about Parsable, visit www.parsable.com.

About Parsable
Parsable (www.parsable.com) helps the world's largest industrial firms get jobs done right - every time. Parsable's Connected Worker Platform enables employees to collaboratively execute their work using paperless, digital work instructions on mobile devices. In addition to measuring every step and action, workers can raise issues and provide feedback in real time so that every process is quickly analyzed and improved. With Parsable, companies gain unprecedented visibility into their operations, uncover detailed data about their work processes for continuous improvement, and attract new tech-savvy talent. A member of the World Economic Forum, Parsable is headquartered in San Francisco with offices throughout North America and Europe. Follow the company on LinkedIn, Twitter (@ParsableHQ) and the Parsable blog.
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