US-based messaging software developer Hustle received $30m yesterday in a series B round featuring GV and Salesforce Ventures, respective subsidiaries of internet technology group Alphabet and enterprise software producer Salesforce.
Venture capital and private equity firm Insight Venture Partners led the round, which increased Hustle’s overall funding to $42m, it said. Insight’s managing director, Hilary Gosher, will join the company’s board of directors in conjunction with its investment.
Founded in 2014, Hustle has built a peer-to-peer messaging app that allows users to send large volumes of messages, enabling organisations to reach out to people more easily, in a way intended to be more personal than emails and quicker than phone calls.
The funding will support an expansion into new verticals and the growth of Hustle’s sales team as it looks to double its size in 2018.
Roddy Lindsay, Hustle’s co-founder and chief executive, said: “At Hustle, we are using technology to empower humans to be the best relationship workers they can be, instead of automating away their jobs.
“We are building a platform that empowers organisers, fundraisers and salespeople to conduct hundreds of real-time personal conversations with their communities, to strengthen relationships through dialogue, and to make big asks when the moment is right.”
Salesforce Ventures had previously joined Twilio.org Impact Fund, part of cloud communication software provider Twilio, for Hustle’s $8m series A round in August 2017.
The round included Social Capital, Index Ventures, Designer Fund, Canvas Ventures and Matrix Partners, all of which had backed Hustle at seed stage, as well as Omidyar Network, Foundation Capital, GSV Acceleration, Higher Ground Labs, Kapor Capital and New Media Ventures.