CONCORD, Mass. — SmashFly Technologies, the leading Recruitment Marketing Platform provider, today announced it has raised $22 million in Series B funding led by Bessemer Venture Partners. SmashFly will use the funds to accelerate product development, open an office in Boston and hire an additional 70 engineering, customer success, marketing and sales professionals in Massachusetts and nationwide. Continue reading “SmashFly Raises $22 Million in Series B Funding Led by Bessemer Venture Partners” →

CONCORD, Mass. — SmashFly Technologies, the leading Recruitment Marketing Platform provider, today announced it has raised $22 million in Series B funding led by Bessemer Venture Partners. SmashFly will use the funds to accelerate product development, open an office in Boston and hire an additional 70 engineering, customer success, marketing and sales professionals in Massachusetts and nationwide. Existing investor OpenView Venture Partners also participated in the round, bringing SmashFly’s total financing to $31 million. Timed with the investment, Bob Goodman, Partner at Bessemer Venture Partners, has joined the SmashFly Board of Directors.

Founded in 2007, SmashFly provides recruitment marketing automation software-as-a-service (SaaS) for leading employers like Nestle Purina, The Cheesecake Factory, CDW, Great Clips and CH2M. The company’s award-winning Total Recruitment Marketing Platformautomates the process of attracting and nurturing candidates and converting them into job applicants, so recruiters can make great hires faster and more cost effectively. For example, Fortune 500 global engineering firm CH2M added 150,000 interested candidates to its talent pipeline in the first year using SmashFly. CH2M saved $750,000 in ineffective job advertising and shifted budget to modern recruiting strategies such as email, social and SEO, helping to reduce the cost per hire from $10,000 to $4,300.

SmashFly joins an impressive list of Bessemer investments in Human Capital Management (HCM), including LinkedIn and Cornerstone OnDemand. “The next wave of innovation in HR technology is happening in the front-end of talent acquisition, and SmashFly is leading this change by modernizing how employers attract and build relationships with today’s talent,” said Bob Goodman, SmashFly Board Member and Partner of Bessemer’s New York City office. “Bessemer is excited to not only accelerate SmashFly’s growth as the market leader, but the growth of its customers as they seek to recruit and hire top talent to fuel their business.”

SmashFly will use the investment to continue the tremendous momentum it experienced in 2015:

• Customer Growth – Tripled the number of new mid-market and enterprise customers compared to last year, leading to 143% increase in year-over-year sales bookings
• Product Innovation – Released a new version of the SmashFly Total Recruitment Marketing Platform with industry-first features for managing employee referrals, controlling employer branding and personalizing the candidate experience
• Employee Accolades – Was named to Boston Business Journal’s “Best Places to Work of 2015,” became the top-rated Boston employer on Glassdoor and doubled employee count in its newly expanded Concord, Mass., headquarters
• Original Research – Published “The SmashFly Recruitment Marketing Report Card for the 2015 Fortune 500,” an analysis of how the largest U.S. companies use best-practice marketing principles to attract and hire talent

“Businesses, large and small, have realized the need to support their recruitment efforts with a best-practice marketing strategy, and SmashFly is well-positioned to take advantage of this shift,” said Ricky Pelletier, SmashFly Board Member and Partner at OpenView. “Our continued investment in the business and the additional backing from Bessemer are clear evidence of SmashFly’s vision, strategy and market leadership.”

SmashFly Founder and CEO Mike Hennessy commented, “To have attracted such high caliber investors like Bessemer and OpenView validates SmashFly’s ability to transform the way companies recruit. I look forward to working with our stellar Board, our dedicated and passionate team, and our forward-thinking customers and partners to drive better talent acquisition results with new marketing competencies, proven strategies and purpose-built technology for the front-end of recruiting.”

SmashFly enables talent acquisition teams to replace disconnected recruiting tools with a Total Recruitment Marketing Platform that combines job marketing, web sourcing, recruitment CRM, talent networks, mobile-responsive and SEO-optimized career sites, social recruiting, employee referrals and recruiting analytics all in one, easy-to-use SaaS platform that integrates with any applicant tracking system (ATS).

To learn about our job opportunities, visit SmashFly’s career site.

To learn more about recruitment marketing, register for SmashFly’s upcoming webinar on “6 Recruitment Marketing Trends in 2016” onJanuary 20, 2016, at 11am PT / 2pm ET.

About SmashFly Technologies
SmashFly’s award-winning Total Recruitment Marketing Platform enables talent acquisition teams to attract, engage, nurture and convert candidates into qualified applicants using a centralized management system that automates and measures recruiting strategies and programs. Customers use SmashFly to unite their previously disconnected recruiting tools into an integrated software platform for Job Marketing, Web Sourcing, Candidate Relationship Management (CRM), Talent Networks, mobile-responsive and SEO-optimized Career Sites, Employee Referrals, Social Recruiting and Recruiting Analytics. Used to target pre-applicants in the front-end of the talent acquisition process, SmashFly integrates with any applicant tracking system (ATS) to provide unparalleled, real-time analytics on the sources that produce the best hires for the organization. Learn more at smashfly.com and follow us on Twitter @SmashFly.

Media Contacts
Liza Colburn for SmashFly Technologies, +1-781-562-0111 or [email protected]
Tiffany Spencer for Bessemer Venture Partners, +1-310-695-1806 or [email protected]
Gail Axelrod for OpenView Venture Partners, +1-617-478-0945 or [email protected]

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA — Scalr, the leading enterprise cloud management platform, today announced it has closed a $7.35 million Series A round of financing, led by OpenView Venture Partners. The investment will be used to expand Scalr’s product, with a focus on the Scalr machine and container policy engine, and to accelerate its market leadership through the expansion of its US-based sales force. Mackey Craven, Partner at OpenView who led the round, joins the Board of Directors and Jim Baum, Venture Partner at OpenView, joins as an Advisor.

“OpenView’s deep domain expertise in the cloud computing space is precisely the reason we decided to partner with Mackey and his team,” said Sebastian Stadil, founder and CEO of Scalr. “Up until now, we’ve bootstrapped our way to immense growth. Today’s injection of capital enables Scalr to extend our reach and capabilities far beyond where they are today. We’re looking forward to this next chapter and cementing our leadership in the cloud management space.”

Since its inception, Scalr has focused on providing companies with a single point of policy management for multiple cloud platforms, and today counts among its customers the FDA, NASA, Expedia, Samsung and Accenture.

“It’s rare for a bootstrapped startup to grow so quickly in the heart of San Francisco, and is a result of solving a critical problem in enterprise IT,” said Mackey Craven. “Cloud adoption is transitioning from shadow IT to the office of the CIO, shining a light on the need for the governance, security, and policy enforcement that Scalr provides.”

Scalr allows enterprises to govern, audit, and manage their cloud usage from a unified console, policy framework, and enforcement point. It does so with its proven solution that provides IT departments with the means to oversee and regulate an organization’s use of cloud resources in private and multi-cloud environments. Three key technology-enabled approaches facilitate these governance and management benefits:

• The Scalr API and web console give transparency into what infrastructure users consume, providing critical oversight and the ability to ‘trust but verify’.
• A robust policy framework gives IT control over cloud enforcement defining what can or cannot be done with cloud resources for compliance, security, best practices, and more.
• Scalr embedded DevOps tools allow IT to build and provide shared services, reaping cost and time-to-market benefits.

“We are in the early innings of a generational transition in enterprise IT,” added Craven, “and as a result the multibillion-dollar monitoring and management stack needs to be rewritten. Scalr is positioned to be one of the pillars of this new ecosystem.”

Scalr continues to grow both its open source community and commercial customer base, which now spans more than 400 businesses ranging from manufacturing, finance, banking, retail, technology, and government. In addition to its San Francisco headquarters, Scalr has expanded its presence to Boston, Denver, Paris, Kiev, Manila, St. Petersburg and Tel Aviv with plans to further grow its US-based sales force.

Earlier this year, Scalr added Chris C. Kemp, co-founder of OpenStack and former CTO of NASA, to its Board of Directors.

About Scalr
The Scalr cloud platform enables today’s enterprises to manage and control accelerated application development across public, private and multi-cloud environments through an enterprise grade, on-premise software solution. The Scalr platform elegantly automates the deployment, monitoring and governance of cloud computing environments. Founded in 2007, Scalr has been selected by leading global organizations, including Samsung, the FDA, Merkle, Acxiom, Expedia, Autodesk, and NASA. For more information, visit scalr.com.

About OpenView Venture Partners
OpenView Venture Partners is an expansion-stage B2B software venture capital firm with nearly $700 million in total capital under management. Founded in 2006 and headquartered in Boston, MA, OpenView provides its portfolio with value-add services through OpenView Labs. Programs range from recruiting to market research and marketing and sales strategy. For more information, visit openviewpartners.com.

SALT LAKE CITY, UT — Canvas, a leading learning management system (LMS) for K–12 and higher education from Instructure Inc. (NYSE: INST), has been named to University Business magazine’s “Readers’ Choice Top Products” for 2015. The winners were compiled from hundreds of nominations from the magazine’s readers over the past year, and the award recognizes Canvas for making a positive difference on college campuses by higher education leaders.

Canvas is a cloud-based LMS that delivers a mobile-friendly, time-saving and easy-to-use experience for higher education students and instructors. The platform improves college course quality and strengthens instructor-student and student-to-student relationships through its innovative and convenient features including video and voice integration.

“Canvas revolutionizes the higher learning experience because it presents courses in an intuitive, fresh manner designed for our current on-the-go population,” said Giorgio Vanzini, senior vice president of product at Instructure. “We’re thrilled that our LMS has resonated with universities around the globe and that leaders within those institutions have nominated us for this prestigious award. It’s our number one priority at Instructure to continue perfecting Canvas for our international partners.”

Canvas is optimized for various electronic gadgets and devices, from laptops to tablets to cell phones, allowing students to learn where they choose, when they choose and how they choose. Instructors also spend less time learning the nuances of an LMS and inputting data and more time on teaching and helping students master essential concepts. Canvas offers modernized content creation, management and delivery tools, freeing universities from the constraints of archaic learning platforms.

The University Business Readers’ Choice Top Products award program informs higher education leaders about products their colleagues around the country are using to help their campuses excel in a variety of areas, such as technology, sustainability and academic instruction.

“It was inspiring to learn about the products being used in today’s colleges and universities that are helping students succeed,” says JD Solomon, the University Business editorial director. “All of our 2015 honorees should be very proud of their success.”

For more information, visit www.instructure.com.

About Instructure
Instructure Inc. is a leading software-as-a-service (SaaS) technology company that makes software that makes people smarter. With a vision to help maximize the potential of people through technology, Instructure created Canvas and Bridge to enable organizations everywhere to easily develop, deliver and manage engaging face-to-face and online learning experiences. To date, Instructure has connected millions of teachers and learners at more than 1,600 educational institutions and corporations throughout the world. Learn more about Canvas for higher ed and K-12, and Bridge for the corporate market at www.Instructure.com.

About University Business
University Business is the most widely received, most regularly read publication for higher education leaders at two- and four-year colleges and universities nationwide. UB provides cutting-edge coverage of higher education technology, news, finance, policy, profiles and more to this exclusive audience across print, digital and in-person event platforms, including the annual higher ed technology conference, UBTech. Independent surveys have proven that year after year, no other higher education management publication matches the reach, readership and audience engagement of University Business. For more information, visitwww.universitybusiness.com.

Contact:
Devin Knighton, Director of Public Relations at Instructure
(801) 722-8187 | [email protected]
Twitter: @devinknighton | www.instructure.com
Jessica Hutchison, Method Communications
(801) 461-9779 | [email protected]
JD Solomon, Editorial Director at University Business magazine
[email protected]

SALT LAKE CITY, Dec. 10, 2015 /PRNewswire/ — Instructure (NYSE: INST), a software-as-a-service (SaaS) company and creator of the Canvas and Bridge learning management systems (LMS), today announced it was named one of Utah’s best companies to work for in 2015 by Utah Business Magazine. This recognition marks the third consecutive year Instructure has received this award.

The award further establishes Instructure as a workplace invested in creating an environment conducive to happy and productive employees. Instructure and other winners will be honored at a luncheon on Dec. 10, 2015 in Salt Lake City.

“We are thrilled that Utah Business Magazine continues to recognize our commitment to building an exceptional and open company culture,” said Jeff Weber, senior vice president of people and places at Instructure. “At Instructure, we focus on providing top-tier benefits and creating an engaging environment that allows our amazingly talented people to apply their creativity and exceptional brainpower to their projects, and these awards show we’re doing just that.”

Instructure prides itself on maintaining an open, informal, fun company culture and providing generous employee perks and amenities, which include paid time off and flexible work schedules tailored to employees with families; 100 percent paid medical, dental, disability and life insurance; a game room with ping pong and basketball; fully-stocked kitchen with free breakfast and lunch selections; live video feeds to international offices to keep teams in touch around the globe; gym memberships and Welbe fitness tracking, among other benefits. Filled with natural light, Instructure’s offices are located at the edge of Utah’s iconic mountains and offer employees a panoramic view of downtown Salt Lake City and the state’s beautiful natural landscape.

Working at Instructure makes employees happy. This fact is evidenced by a December 2015 Glassdoor score of 4.7 out of five based on 76 employee reviews, with 96 percent of employees stating they would recommend a friend to work at Instructure. Instructure’s C-level executives are also esteemed — CEO Josh Coates receives a 94 percent approval rating on the site.

Instructure was selected by Utah Business Magazine as one of the best companies to work for through a scrupulous examination of company features including benefits and pay, fairness and opportunities, corporate culture, internal communication and employee pride. The award validates Instructure’s team of talented employees for embodying its core values including trust, excellence, integrity and openness.

ABOUT INSTRUCTURE:

Instructure, Inc. is a leading  software-as-a-service (SaaS) technology company that makes software that makes people smarter. With a vision to help maximize the potential of people through technology, Instructure created Canvas and Bridge to enable organizations everywhere to easily develop, deliver and manage engaging face-to-face and online learning experiences. To date, Instructure has connected millions of teachers and learners at more than 1,600 educational institutions and corporations throughout the world. Learn more about Canvas for higher ed and K-12, and Bridge for the corporate market at www.Instructure.com.

CONTACTS:

Devin Knighton, Director of Public Relations at Instructure
(801) 722-8187 | [email protected]
Twitter: @devinknighton | www.instructure.com

Jessica Hutchison, Method Communications
(801) 461-9779 | [email protected]

PHILADELPHIA, Dec. 9, 2015 /PRNewswire/ — Monetate, the global leader in multi-channel testing and personalization for brands worldwide, announced today that its platform influenced more than a third of total U.S. ecommerce sales (or more than one in everythree dollars) during “Cyber Week” 2015 – the holiday shopping season comprising Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday. comScore reported that Cyber Monday 2015 was the single biggest online shopping day in history, jumping 15 percent over last year with nearly$3 billion in sales. Furthermore, Cyber Week sales grew to a record-breaking $11 billion, bolstered by the extended Cyber Week deal season, as well as a particularly strong showing from mobile shoppers this season.

Cyber Week is Here to Stay
Last year, major retailers started online deals earlier in the season, encroaching on Black Friday and introducing Thanksgiving Daysales. The trend continued this year, with retailers stretching the online shopping season well outside Cyber Monday. This shift extended the online holiday deal season, transforming Cyber Monday into Cyber Week as Monetate predicted at the close of 2013.

Online sales growth was higher on Thanksgiving (25 percent) than on Black Friday (14.3 percent) and Cyber Monday (16 percent). Prior to this holiday season, Cyber Monday 2014 was the largest ecommerce day on record. That mantle has been seized by Cyber Monday 2015, when more than $3 billion in online sales made it the largest ecommerce day in history.

“In 2014, brands started promotional deals well before Cyber Monday, creating Cyber Week. 2015 has solidified Cyber Week as a fixture of the holiday buying season,” said Lucinda Duncalfe, CEO, Monetate. “Meanwhile, holiday shopping continues to shift from stores to online. Ecommerce allows retailers to meet their customers where they are in the moment – offering a personalized online shopping experience based on each shopper’s individual context, behavior and preferences.”

Ecommerce barely beat out in-store sales this year according to the NRF. 103 million Americans shopped online during Thanksgivingweekend in 2015. In comparison, 102 million people shopped in store, with 151 million shoppers in total.

Mobile Emerges as a Purchasing Channel
As anticipated, mobile emerged this year as a legitimate purchasing channel. Last year, mobile traffic was strong but purchases lagged. Monetate data revealed that this year 37 percent of online sales came from mobile on Thanksgiving, 33 percent on Black Friday and 28 percent on Cyber Monday – a substantial increase compared to Cyber Week 2014, which saw only 20 percent of online sales attributed to mobile.

“Mobile came into its own this holiday season,” Duncalfe continued. “At the close of 2014, we predicted that in 2015 mobile behaviors would shift from browsing to buying, and that’s exactly what happened this Cyber Week. That consumer shift increases pressure on brands to develop omnichannel retail strategies that meet consumer expectations – everywhere they choose to shop. The key is creating utility and value for the customer whether they’re on desktop, mobile or in a physical store.”

About Monetate
Monetate is the global leader in multi-channel testing and personalization for brands worldwide. The Monetate platform is built for speed. It features an easy-to-use interface that allows marketers to create, test, and deploy customized real-time experiences across web, email, and mobile.

With Monetate, marketing is transformed from a world of discrete one-size-fits-all campaigns to one of always-on, personalized experiences that optimize the lifetime value of each customer.

Founded in 2008, Monetate influences billions of dollars in annual revenue for world-class brands like Macy’s, QVC, Office Depot, Patagonia, Sur la Table, and The North Face. During Cyber Week 2015, Monetate influenced more than a third of all U.S. ecommerce sales. Monetate is the industry leader, with more clients in the IR 500 than any other company.

Media Contact
Shelby Pritchett (Finn Partners) 313-486-0664 or [email protected]

NEW YORK, Dec. 8, 2015 /PRNewswire/ — VTS, the leading commercial real estate asset management and leasing platform, now manages more than 2 billion square feet of commercial space both in the US and around the world. This unmatched market penetration, which surpasses the company’s year end goal, makes VTS the new standard for top brokers, asset managers and landlords and cements VTS’ position as the de facto ecosystem for the CRE community.

VTS also announced the hire of Charles Hough as its first Chief Operating Officer.  Hough, previously Senior Vice President and General Manager for Asia Pacific at San Francisco-based Lithium Technologies, will oversee VTS’ domestic and global expansion.  He brings more than 20 years of leadership experience in enterprise software and big data analytics, helping innovative startups such as Lithium and Interwoven rapidly grow into market leaders with industry-changing solutions.

“Charles has a proven track record of operational excellence as evidenced by his success at several Silicon Valley-based technology companies,” said Nick Romito, Co-Founder and CEO of VTS. “His vast experience overseeing rapid growth of both technical and business teams in several successful startups will undoubtedly accelerate our expansion into new and existing markets.”

“VTS’ technology and domain expertise compelled me to make the move. I couldn’t be more excited and proud to join the team,” saidCharles Hough, COO of VTS. “We’ve already made great strides breaking into a traditionally technology-averse industry and with our rapid growth have proven a need for the unified suite of innovative tools VTS provides.”

VTS is transforming the $12 trillion commercial real estate industry by providing brokers, landlords, asset managers and their teams with a comprehensive platform that allows for seamless collaboration and portfolio tracking. The unified, mobile-first solution gives CRE professionals access to leasing information, analytics and market trends all from one easy-to-use interface. In the last 6 months alone, VTS has signed on new customers including Tishman Speyer, The Davis Companies, Clarion, RMR and American Assets Trust.

“After an extensive vetting process for a leasing and asset management platform, we decided that VTS was the best partner for The Davis Companies,” said Duncan Gilkey, Senior Vice President of Asset Management. “Not only does VTS have strong references, they are flexible and customer service oriented, and their technology provides us with a cloud-based system that insures brokers and landlords are united under one platform that is instantaneously updated, ensuring all team members can edit or access real time information 24/7 via smartphone, iPad, email or desktop.”

VTS’ success indicates true demand for a single, unified platform that allows for clear communication between brokers and landlords. With more than 5,000 brokers currently utilizing the platform, strategic partnerships with CBRE and Blackstone, key customer wins and fresh venture funding, VTS is on pace to further modernize and transform an industry long in need of a technological revolution.

About VTS
VTS is the leading leasing and asset management platform built to provide real-time portfolio analytics to the top landlords and brokerage firms in the world. VTS allows brokers and owners to manage deal activity, identify trends and quantify portfolio performance from their desktop or mobile device. With over 2 billion square feet under management, VTS is the driving force behind the industry’s shift towards real-time data and is quickly becoming the marketplace standard.

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS (PRWEB) December 07, 2015 — OpenView Venture Partners, the leading expansion-stage B2B software venture capital firm, will host an hour-long coding workshop for Code.org’s third-annual Hour of Code, a campaign aimed at increasing global participation in computer science, during Computer Science Education Week. Through a partnership with Science Club for Girls, a non-profit organization, which guides elementary school girls in STEM field exploration and provides high school students with STEM-based mentorship and internships, OpenView continues its commitment to promoting diversity in the Boston tech community and beyond.

To date, more than 100 million students across 180 countries and 40 languages have participated in the Hour of Code, including one in three students in US schools. This year, the campaign expects to exceed 100,000 events during Computer Science Education Week in the hope of introducing girls and underrepresented students to the field of computer science.

“OpenView has a long-standing commitment to enriching the Boston and national tech ecosystems,” said Scott Maxwell, Founder and Managing Partner at OpenView. “We believe diversity breeds success and introducing underrepresented students to technical fields like computer science will impact our community for years to come.”

“The Hour of Code is designed to demystify code and show that computer science is not rocket-science, anybody can learn the basics,” said Hadi Partovi, founder and CEO of Code.org. “Over 100 million students worldwide have tried an Hour of Code. The demand for relevant 21st century computer science education crosses all borders and knows no boundaries.”

“Partnering with OpenView allows us to support the Hour of Code and is yet one more way we can provide STEM opportunities to our members,” said Lydia Peabody, Youth Program Director at Science Club for Girls. “Currently, women earn only 18% of undergraduate information science degrees and represent just 25% of the computer science workforce. The industry is missing out on a huge pool of talent and women are missing out on high-paying jobs. Hour of Code creates a safe space for girls to explore computer science. Opportunities like this where girls can interact with female role models and experience the creativity of coding are essential to encouraging girls to consider careers in computer science.”

OpenView’s participation in the annual Hour of Code event builds on the firm’s commitment to fostering diversity within the tech community. Earlier this year, OpenView announced an historic partnership with Startup Institute, the leader for education in the innovation economy. As one of the nation’s leading career accelerators, Startup Institute aims to promote diversity within the startup ecosystem, provide its students with expert training in the most in-demand skills and instill in them the cultural awareness needed to thrive in a startup environment. To date, 41% of Startup Institute students have been women and 35% students of color.

You can learn more about Code.org’s third-annual Hour of Code here.

About Code.org
Code.org is a 501c3 public non-profit dedicated to expanding participation in computer science and increasing participation by women and underrepresented students of color. Its vision is that every student in every school should have the opportunity to learn computer programming. After launching in 2013, Code.org organized the Hour of Code campaign – which has introduced over 100 million students to computer science to date – and partnered with 70 public school districts nationwide to expand computer science programs. Code.org is supported by philanthropic donations from corporations, foundations and generous individuals, including Microsoft, Infosys Foundation, USA, The Ballmer Family Giving, Omidyar Network and others. For more information, please visit: code.org.

About Science Club for Girls
Science Club for Girls (SCFG) has been providing free, fun after school programs for girls in STEM for over 20 years; what began as one kindergarten club in 1994 is now serving more than 1,000 girls in grades K-12 annually in Boston, Cambridge, Newton, Brookline and Lawrence, led by over 200 volunteer mentor scientists. Over 70% of SCFG participants come from racial or socio-economic backgrounds that are underrepresented in STEM fields. SCFG’s mission is to “foster excitement, confidence, and literacy in STEM for girls, particularly from underrepresented communities, by providing free, experiential programs and by maximizing meaningful interactions with women mentors in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.” For more information, please visit scienceclubforgirls.org.

About OpenView Venture Partners
OpenView Venture Partners is an expansion-stage B2B software venture capital firm with nearly $700 million in total capital under management. Founded in 2006 and headquartered in Boston, MA, OpenView provides its portfolio with value-add services through OpenView Labs. Programs range from recruiting to market research and marketing and sales strategy. For more information, visit openviewpartners.com.