- Submittable — a Missoula, Montana-based application review and opportunity marketplace announced it raised $10 million in Series B
Missoula, Montana-based Submittable — the leading application review and opportunity marketplace — announced it raised $10 million in Series B funding led by Next Coast Ventures. And True Ventures, Next Frontier Capital, and Flywheel Ventures also participated in this round as well.
This round of funding will be used for further accelerating the company’s ongoing investment in AI-powered matching, review technology, and mobile apps connecting more opportunity-seekers with organizations of all sizes.
Ever since Submittable launched in 2010 and graduated from Y Combinator’s accelerator program, Submittable has provided more than 10,000 organizations a platform for accepting, reviewing, and ranking more than 20 million digital submissions and applications from over three million users.
Submittable — the “CRM for submissions” — was launched by three creatives including Michael FitzGerald (CEO), John Brownell (CTO), and Bruce Tribbensee. They wanted not just to simplify and improve the process of submitting their own work but also wanted to create a marketplace for matching the submissions with real opportunities across many industries including publishing, academia, philanthropy, contests, and corporate giving.
Submittable is now the leading Submission Management Platform and Marketplace with over 10,000 organizations using the platform to submit, accept and review content, applications, and entries across multiple industries, including publishing, grants, contests, and corporate giving.
“To date there’s been no meaningful platform that helps organizations create opportunities and review submissions to them — most companies, like ZipRecruiter and Indeed, have focused on job applications and hiring, but there are millions of submission processes that have nothing to do with jobs such as manuscripts, peer-review, contests, films, auditions, grant or academic applications,” said FitzGerald. “We haven’t just built one of the cleanest and easy-to-use UI’s out there, we’ve perfected the customizable review processes for hundreds of use-cases and are now building out a suite of AI-matching technologies that will help any organization find the right opportunity for them.”
Submittable’s user-friendly review tools and growing AI-enabled technology have become so proficient at making meaningful matches that organizations find quality submissions for specific opportunities through the platform within days rather than weeks.
And applicants receive real-time updates on the status of their applications, streamlining the acceptance process for companies. The company’s customers include Fortune 500 companies such as AT&T and NBC, storytellers like HBO and ESPN, and many nonprofits including the Knight Foundation.
“Submittable is a perfect example of what is possible outside Silicon Valley. The platform is modernizing the often painful undertaking of managing the submission process and leveraging that data for genuine opportunity creation,” added Michael Smerklo — the co-founder and managing director of Next Coast Ventures who is joining Submittable’s board as part of the investment. “Submittable’s UI is so clean and easy to use, that paired with their customization ability and matching technology has really established them as the foremost platform in the space across multiple industries. The growth of the business has been phenomenal and we are thrilled to be partnering with the company and Michael as they continue to improve the lives of both opportunity seekers and creators of all sizes — and we are especially looking forward to spending more time on the ground in beautiful Montana.”
Over half of Submittable’s staff came out of the University of Montana and it is considered one of the fastest-growing tech companies in the area. Some of the company’s recent executives have joined the company from leading brands like Disney, Microsoft, and Oracle. And the financing will also be used for expanding the company’s footprint in Missoula with plans to hire seven people a month through the end of 2020.
