Factivate, a startup focusing on development of tools for use of business intelligence by sales and marketing organizations, has landed seed funding from Cofounders Capital.
Factivate, ledby Juan Porras, a Duke University graduate, didn’t have to go far in search of funding. It’s based in Cofounder’s lab in Cary.
The startup’s technology provides data aggregation, visualizations and alerts. Currently in beta testing, it’s expected to be offered through Software as a Service model this winter.
“Factivate was built to enterprise-level standards that support large data sets with a focus on high-level security and ease of use”, said Porras. “Drag and drop data source connectors let users easily pull data into a spreadsheet from other cloud services such as Marketo and Salesforce to create dynamic reports that are always up-to-date, while visualization tools dynamically update charts that may be shared across teams or enterprises. The result is cost savings and increased efficiency without sacrificing the inherently powerful nature of spreadsheets.”
The investment is the fourth already made by Cofounders, which launched in June with $10 million. The firm is led by serial entrepreneur Dave Gardner.
Factivate did not disclose the amount of its seed funding.
“In sharp contrast to the complex and expensive B.I. tools on the market today, if you know how to use Excel then you know 95% of what you need to know to use Factivate and pull your cloud-based data into a simple familiar interface for analysis and manipulation,” Gardner said in announcing the funding.”
The Cofounders fund generally makes an initial investment of $300,000 and has already backed two other local firms. It focuses exclusively on B2B companies because they generally require far less in startup capital than B2C companies that have to advertise to get customers. B2B firms also frequently sell to enterprise customers who are not price sensitive and can write big checks for a solution that solves a problem.
The fund also operates free office space via Cary Cofoudners lab, which is supported by the Town of Cary. It includes work tables, high speed Internet, conference rooms, office equipment and even an outside patio.
