RALEIGH – Serial entrepreneur Jesse Lipson’s new startup is generating plenty of magic, drawing $4 million more in capital from investors than he originally sought to give Real Magic and its Levitate customer relationship app funding for expansion.
“We are raising $6 million. It was oversubscribed,” Lipson, the founder of ShareFile which he later sold to Citrix, tells WRAL TechWire. “Originally we had planned to raise $2 million but found some really great investors and decided to make extra room for them.”
Backers include Bull City Venture Partners in Durham – a longtime backer of Lipson.
Behind the curtain with Real Magic’s Levitate app – a Q&A with its wizard Jesse Lipson
“Jason [Caplain] and David [Jones] at Bull City are really great and I wanted to involve a local VC firm if at all possible,” Lipson says.
As investors lined up, Lipson chose to work with venture capitalists he already knew.
“The investment is co-led by Tippet Partners (Andy Sheehan) and Peter Gassner (CEO and co-founder of Veeva Systems). Bull City Venture Partners is also participating in the round. I’ve had long standing relationships with Andy Sheehan at Tippet (he was the Series A investor in a company called Yext, where I sit on the Board, and I’ve known him for 10 years).
“Peter Gassner is someone who I’ve come to know recently. As the co-founder of a company that has grown to over $20 billion in market value in the CRM [customer relationship management] space, he brings some great knowledge that will add a lot of value for us.
Lipson also is a big believer in the company, noting that funded the initial seed investment of the firm at $2 million – so his backers know just how deeply committed Lipson is to the new venture.
With the funding, Lipson plans to double the Real Magic from its current workforce of 25 in coming months. The company is based at HQ Raleigh.
