LevelEleven, a US-based software company whose lead product Compete deploys competitive techniques to motivate salespeople, has received $2m in venture funding from US-based cloud software company Salesforce.com, venture capital firms Detroit Venture Partners, Hyde Park Venture Partners, angel investor David Fry, and the first ever investment from Mashburn Justice Capital Partners, a new fund launched by professional sports players Jamal Mashburn and Winston Justice.
LevelEleven previously raised $1.5m in April 2013, having secured $1m in seed funding in November 2012 from Detroit Venture Partners and digital promotions agency ePrize. LevelEleven was founded in 2011 as a project sponsored by ePrize.
The new financing will be used to scale the LevelEleven team, increase sales and marketing efforts, and further product development.
Jamal Mashburn, who was a professional basketball player from 1993-2003, said: “Given our athletic backgrounds, both Winston and I understand the motivational element inherent in competition. We believe that same competitive fire that drives us as professional athletes can be applied to the business world in order to motivate sales teams, so the decision to invest in LevelEleven was an easy one.”
Bob Marsh, LevelEleven founder and chief executive officer, said: “This latest investment further validates the great traction we are seeing in the market and our vision around using competition and gamification techniques to motivate salespeople.”