Socrata (www.socrata.com), a Seattle-based cloud software company focused exclusively on democratizing access to government data, today announced a partnership with New York City to make it dramatically easier and more cost effective for cities, counties and states to transparently disseminate their spending data.

Inspired by New York City’s award-winning Checkbook NYC financial transparency application (www.checkbooknyc.com), Socrata will enhance its Open Checkbook application to incorporate Checkbook NYC’s user interface look and feel and its functionality, offering the solution as an easy-to-implement, turnkey, software-as-a-service (SaaS). The new application will be offered as Socrata Open Spending, Inspired by Checkbook NYC.

The new Socrata Open Spending, Inspired by Checkbook NYC application will be one of the featured applications available in Socrata’s forthcoming Civic App Store, a marketplace of open data applications developed by Socrata, Socrata’s government customers and third-party civic application developers.

Checkbook NYC, initially launched in June of 2010 by the Office of New York City Comptroller John C. Liu, provides unprecedented access to track how the government of New York City spends its $70 billion annual budget. It is widely considered one of the best financial transparency applications in the country.

In January of this year, a comprehensive national study, conducted by the United States Public Interest Research Group, titled “Transparency in City Spending: Rating the Availability of Online Government Data in America’s Largest Cities,” ranked New York City’s Checkbook NYC transparency website in the top spot out of 30 cities. In November, Checkbook NYC was named “Best External Application” by Government Technology magazine at the 2013 Best of New York City Awards.

And, while New York City’s finances have been available online since 2010, the Office of New York City Comptroller John C. Liu and Socrata are now teaming up to offer the capabilities of Checkbook NYC to municipal, city, county, regional and state governments around the world.

“Checkbook NYC is a transformational app that is truly democratizing citizen and journalist access to the finances of one of the world’s greatest and most innovative cities,” says Socrata CEO and Founder Kevin Merritt. “The goal of the new Socrata Open Spending, Inspired by Checkbook NYC application, is to offer what New York City created at scale, across Socrata’s global cloud infrastructure, atop Socrata’s open data platform and Socrata Open Data API.”

“We are excited to collaborate with Socrata, the leading data transparency company for governments, on standardizing the financial data formats and APIs used by as Socrata Open Spending, Inspired by Checkbook NYC. From day one, our dream with Checkbook NYC has been to inspire other governments to become more financially transparent so that taxpayers know how their hard-earned money is being spent and that researchers, policy experts, and entrepreneurs can access the information they need to improve people’s lives,” says New York City Deputy Comptroller Ari Hoffnung. “New York City’s partnership with Socrata will help make this dream a reality.”

New York City and Socrata are committed to supporting the open data developer community and its vital role in civic innovation, as well as the open data movement globally. All of the data made available through the Socrata Open Spending, Inspired by Checkbook NYC user interface will also be available via open, standards-based, machine-readable application programming interfaces (APIs) so that third-party developers can build applications that programmatically incorporate government financial data. Socrata and New York City will further collaborate on standard, open data formats for the financial data made available through the application.

About Socrata

Socrata is the cloud software company focused exclusively on democratizing access to government data. Its solutions help government leaders improve transparency, modernize citizen access to information and bring facts into every decision, with unprecedented speed and cost savings. Delivered as turnkey cloud services, Socrata’s data consumerization products unlock data in enterprise silos and transform it into useful information that everyone can easily access, visualize, share and reuse.

To learn more about Socrata, visit www.socrata.com or follow us on Twitter @socrata

Spredfast, the leading independent social relationship platform provider, today announced that it has raised $32.5 million in growth capital led by Lead Edge Capital, which has funded well-known software, e-commerce and internet companies including Alibaba Group, Marketo, Bazaarvoice, Drillinginfo, Refinery29, and Monetate.

The majority of Lead Edge’s investors are current or former senior-level Fortune 500 executives, successful entrepreneurs, and leading public market investors. Upon investment, portfolio companies are given full access to Lead Edge’s limited partners to help them grow faster. Previous investors Austin Ventures, InterWest Partners, and OpenView Partners also participated in the round.

The capital will be used to accelerate Spredfast’s aggressive growth trajectory through talent acquisition, product development and global expansion, and solidify its position as the leading independent social relationship platform provider in the world. More than 300 enterprise brands including General Mills, AT&T, and REI use Spredfast to manage their strategic social programs. On average, these companies have nearly 120 employees managing social activity for 40 brands or initiatives across 200 accounts. Their dynamic social programs require enterprise-class technologies that enable them to build and maintain relationships with customers.

“Spredfast has catapulted into a market leadership position and its extensive client roster is a testament to that. We have tracked this industry for a number of years and we know that Spredfast is poised to win this market. They are truly an integral part of every business’ daily operations,” said Mitchell Green, managing partner, Lead Edge Capital. “We look forward to being a partner to Spredfast and are excited to work with the entire team as they enter this next chapter.”

This round comes on the heels of a record year for Spredfast. Recent milestones include:

• Revenue tripled year over year from 2012 to 2013.
• New customer acquisitions of marquee enterprise social brands including General Mills and REI, and strengthened existing relationships with clients including Discover, AT&T, Target, Rackspace, and AARP.
• Deepened partnership with Twitter through integration of new functionality that enables brands to target and deliver organic tweets by country.
• The only open enterprise SRP on the market with strategic integrations with leading social products like Kenshoo Social, Brandwatch, and Bazaarvoice which allow brands to amplify their paid, earned, and owned media programs from a single platform.

“This is evolving into a huge market. Every enterprise in every industry can leverage social to grow their business. We are now in the next wave of social business, and we are succeeding because of our single mission,” said Rod Favaron, CEO of Spredfast. “Our customers rely on us to innovate and give them the tools they need to market and manage relationships on social with those who matter most, their customers. We are thrilled to have the support and confidence of our new and existing investors as we accelerate our growth.”

About Spredfast

Based in Austin, Texas, Spredfast provides a social relationship platform that empowers enterprise brands to build lasting relationships by creating great social experiences.  Spredfast enables more people, in more places, to engage in more conversations from a single software platform on supported social networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, YouTube, Foursquare, and popular blogging platforms. Some of the enterprise and agency adopters on board with Spredfast include AT&T, Jason’s Deli, Warner Brothers, Whole Foods Market, AARP, AGAIN Interactive, Coty Beauty, HomeAway and Ogilvy. For more information, visit www.spredfast.com

Kareo, Inc., a leading provider of cloud-based medical office software and services for small medical practices, announced its inclusion on Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500, a ranking of the 500 fastest growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences and clean technology companies in North America.

Kareo grew 797% during the five-year ranking period and ranked 5th in healthcare technology, 18th in Southern California, and 156th overall.

“We are honored to be recognized by Deloitte as one of the fastest growing companies in North America,” said Dan Rodrigues, CEO and founder of Kareo. “This achievement speaks to the commitment, focus, and success of the Kareo team in delivering solutions valued by medical practices. Now more than ever, practices need a trusted partner to help them successfully navigate the rapidly changing healthcare environment, and we are ready to lead the way.”

“The 2013 Deloitte Technology Fast 500 companies are exemplary cases of those spurring growth in a tough market through innovation,” said Eric Openshaw, vice chairman, Deloitte LLP and U.S. technology, media and telecommunications leader. “This year’s list is a who’s who of companies behind the most exciting and innovative products and services in the technology space. We congratulate the Fast 500 companies and look forward to what they do next.”

Kareo has grown rapidly and now serves more than 20,000 medical professionals with its solutions. Small practices rely on Kareo’s intuitive and affordable cloud-based applications to effectively manage their operations by simplifying patient scheduling, improving billing processes, and navigating complex payment requirements. In today’s challenging healthcare environment, Kareo is the trusted partner that will significantly reduce the difficulties faced by today’s private practices while leading them toward becoming a best practice.

Read more about Kareo Named One of the Fastest Growing Technology Companies in North America – BWWGeeksWorld by www.broadwayworld.com

AtTask, the industry leader in Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) Enterprise Work Management solutions, is pleased to announce that it has been named one of Utah’s 2013 Best Companies to Work For by Utah Business Magazine.

The award capstones a successful fiscal year for AtTask, which has taken home an impressive number of local business and industry awards over the last 12 months.

AtTask prides itself for employing some of the most intelligent and talented people in the industry. In addition to quarterly service projects, the company encourages a “work hard, play hard” mentality by holding popular events like an annual dodgeball tournament and regular team offsite events.

“We are who we say we are,” said Eric Morgan, CEO of AtTask. “We have a very clear mission and strategy and this gives our employees purpose and autonomy. “

In 2013, AtTask and its work management software received the following awards:

• Leader: Gartner Mid-Market PPM Vendor Landscape
• Cool Vendor: Gartner CRM Marketing Applications
• Champion: Info-Tech Champion in Mid-Market PPM Vendor Landscape
• Ranked #3: 2014 Best Online Project Management Review by Top Ten Reviews
• Listed: Six Best Collaboration Apps to Keep Teams Organized
• Winner: Deloitte Technology Fast 500
• Winner: Utah Fast 50 2013
• Winner: MountainWest Capital Network 2013 Utah 100
• Best Marketing Team – American Marketing Association (AMA) Utah Chapter
• Winner: Utah Business Magazine Utah’s Best Companies to Work For

 

“These awards are emblematic of a tremendous year for AtTask and its employees,” said Morgan. “We’ve enjoyed significant growth during 2013, and we are excited to continue serving our customers well and taking AtTask to the next level in 2014.”

 

Monetate’s marketing Acceleration Cloud influenced more than one third of total U.S. ecommerce sales (or one in every three dollars) during the 2013 holiday shopping season comprising Black Friday thru Cyber Monday.

ComScore reported that Cyber Monday 2013 was the biggest online shopping day in history, jumping 18 percent over last year with $1.735 billion in sales from desktops alone. This makes it the second day this season to surpass a billion dollars in online sales.

Recent reports cite industry average revenue growth for the five-day online sales period, from Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday, at anywhere from 16.5 percent to 26 percent. Monetate reports its customers’ ecommerce sales have shattered previous year records with a 50 percent revenue increase, dramatically outperforming industry averages.

Thanksgiving and Black Friday fell a week later in the season versus last year, leading stores to push pre-Black Friday deals and shifting consumer spending earlier. This shift has led to an extension of the online holiday shopping season; stretching Cyber Monday into “Cyber Week.” As marketers continue to hone their digital strategies, Monetate predicts Cyber Week will overtake Cyber Monday in the years ahead.

“The ecommerce data over the past five days certainly supports the idea that Cyber Monday has made it into consumer consciousness and marks the official kick off to the holiday shopping season,” said Elaine Rubin, president of Digital Prophets Network and co-founder and former chair of Shop.org, a division of the National Retail Federation and the organization that coined the term Cyber Monday. “The lines are blurring between Black Friday and Cyber Monday as retailers use digital marketing to create a seamless customer experience. Cyber Monday is turning into Cyber Week, or even Cyber Season, with deals extending well beyond Monday.  One thing is for sure, consumers are using their computers and mobile devices to take advantage of discount buying opportunities.”

Cyber Week ecommerce conversion rates jumped 24.23 percent over the previous year according to Monetate. Revenue from shoppers on tablets had the largest revenue increase (170.09 percent), followed by smartphones (109.20 percent), and desktops and laptops (44.71 percent).

“It was no surprise that tablets represented a huge revenue driver this holiday season — previous years’ performance data foretold this trend. Marketers who were unprepared to provide customers with a winning tablet experience should take this lesson to heart when looking to the year ahead,” said David Brussin, CEO and co-founder of Monetate.

Brussin continued, “This year’s data portends another critical trend for marketers. Email, the lifeblood of ecommerce, took a punch in the gut this season. Email traffic and revenue numbers decreased severely. Consumers are signaling a demand for greater relevancy and consistency from their inbox and marketers who don’t heed this warning may find themselves in the same boat as those who were unprepared for tablets this year.”

The average order value (AOV) for Cyber Week was up 13.97 percent from last year. Despite a large increase in website traffic from tablets (81.07 percent) and smartphones (58.21 percent), traditional desktop and laptop traffic had an AOV of ($165.17) with 6.60 percent less traffic than last year. Overall website traffic increased 7.90 percent.

The success of this holiday ecommerce season comes at a time of continued, rapid growth for Monetate. The company has more than doubled its revenue over last year and grown to nearly 200 employees globally. It has recently expanded its London offices, extending Monetate’s reach further into Europe to include Germany and the Nordic regions. In support of this rapid growth, Monetate recently completed its latest funding round with an additional $8 million investment led by existing investors OpenView Venture Partners, Common Fund and Lead Edge Capital.

About Monetate

Monetate is a marketing acceleration software company that believes when the customer wins, the marketer wins.

A new kind of marketing technology, the Monetate Acceleration Cloud lets marketers understand their customers’ situations, behaviors and preferences, and act on those insights with in-the-moment, relevant experiences, targeted to the right customer at the right time.  The Monetate Acceleration Cloud runs above traditional infrastructure and is accessed through one seamless UI.

Monetate generates billions of dollars of new revenue for businesses, helping them grow 39 percent faster than the industry average. Brands such as Best Buy, National Geographic, and Celebrity Cruises rely on Monetate to put the customer first, creating stronger relationships that drive sustained competitive advantage.

Signpost, a startup offering an online marketing platform for small businesses, is announcing that it has raised $10 million in Series B funding.

The round was led by OpenView Venture Partners, with additional investment from Spark Capital, Scout Ventures, and wikiHow founder Jack Herrick. OpenView managing director Dev Ittycheria is joining Signpost’s board of directors.

When I asked how the company has evolved since it raised its Series A last year (it was described at the time as “AdSense for local commerce“), a spokesperson told me that the platform has expanded beyond customer conversion/acquisition to include managing the presence of businesses on sites like Yelp and remarketing campaigns that lure customers back:

Signpost has always optimized for the highest value of new customers and focused on quality conversions and now incorporates enterprise-like lifecycle marketing automation functionality that enables business owners to simply flip a switch and create targeted digital and mobile marketing campaigns that dramatically increase sales. Previously, this level of advanced marketing automation technology would only be available to larger corporations with the staff, budget, and infrastructure to support it.

The company also says it now has more than 10,000 customers, and that its tripled its team in the past year to 75. Signpost has a raised a total of $15 million in funding.

This article was originally posted on TechCrunch by Anthony Ha.