Sharpen Technologies, an Indianapolis, Indiana-based company that is known as developers of an agent-first omni-channel cloud contact center platform, announced it raised $15 million in capital growth funding. Investors in this round include Allos Ventures LLC, Cultivation Capital, Elevate Ventures, Jupiter Peak LLC, Collina Ventures, IU PhV, F&M Investment Office LLC, and Lightchain LLC, and the family office of billionaire and Scottrade founder Rodger Riney.
Last year, Sharpen increased its new contract dollar amount by 700% and the company increased booked annual recurring revenues by 150% over the previous year. Plus the company also increased its contact center customer count by 80%over 2017.
“Our latest round of funding will help us continue the momentum we achieved in 2018 by further growing our sales team, extending our market reach, and expanding on our already full-featured cloud contact center platform,” said Sharpen’s chairman and CEO Mike Simmons in a statement.
Sharpen’s solutions address the decades-old agent issues that are responsible for poor customer experiences. And Sharpen’s proprietary Agent Experience Score (AXS) gives contact centers a way to measure and track not only performance but agent well-being as well. Plus Sharpen’s omni-channel approach gives agents a single interface for communicating multiple channels.
To further fuel its growth, Sharpen also filled in a number of its leadership roles with some talented individuals. Now the executive team also includes Ashley Vukovits as consulting chief financial officer, Pam Hynes as the chief operating officer, Kevin Schatz as chief technology officer, and Ty Baldwin as the chief revenue officer.
Simmons has more than 25 years of experience running fast-growing tech companies. For example, he was the founder and CEO of T2 Systems — which is a tech firm that grew to more than 300 employees before getting acquired by Thoma Bravo in 2016. Vukovits worked in accounting, finance, and leadership positions for more than 25 years. Hynes was previously Sharpen’s VP of client experience and she brings more than 30 years of expertise helping tech companies develop industry-leading customer programs. Schatz has 13 years of expertise leading customer experience and tech projects within the contact center market. And Baldwin has over 30 years of technology sales and management experience.
“Sharpen’s unique approach to omni-channel communications, combined with its agent-first focus and reliable platform give the company a strong advantage in the fast-growing cloud contact center market,” added Elevate Ventures CEO Chris LaMothe. “We previously invested in Sharpen because of its high-growth potential and we’re proud to continue our support of the team while helping the company take advantage of this immense market opportunity.”
David Kerr of Allos Ventures LLC is joining Sharpen’s board in conjunction with this funding round. The existing board members include Simmons. Paul Weber (Cultivation Capital) and Ting Gootee (Elevate Ventures).
“With customer service now one of the most important competitive differentiators across virtually all industries, Sharpen is in a prime position to accelerate growth,” explained Kerr. “It offers an incredibly mature cloud-native contact center platform that includes all the functionality necessary to create superior customer experiences at an affordable cost.”
