Linq, a local tech startup that produces digital business cards without the use of an app, has closed a $2.5 million seed round.
The seed round was led by Mucker Capital, a California-based company that invests in seed and pre-seed stage companies outside of Silicon Valley. The round had participation from the Alabama Futures Fund, Shipt and Landing Founder Bill Smith, and other investors from the local area and the West Coast.
According to Linq CEO Elliott Potter, the app has seen a huge influx of demand over the last year, which garnered interest from investors. On the heels of the raise, the company is looking to expand its product offerings in retail spaces and settings, as well as on the corporate side.
“(We are) continuing to develop out the physical product line in a way that makes sense with kind of the times we’re living in now,” Potter said. “But then also, a lot of it is going to go into our B2B expansion. Businesses using Linq for their whole team has been another thing that was really attractive to investors and it’s kind of blown up this year.”
Linq is also ramping up hiring. Potter said the company is looking for employees in sales, account management and customer support, among other positions.
The company recently added four people, including Connor Eggleston, the former director of engineering at Shipt. The company currently has 10 employees and is planning to have 30 by the end of the year, but Potter said that number could increase to 50.
The company saw significant growth in 2020, as previously reported by the BBJ, with a huge surge in demand for its QR code technology and applications in retail and other business spaces.
The company is now looking to capitalize on the surge of growth, and Potter said his previous experience with Shipt provided a good lesson for how to manage success.
“One of the coolest things about being in Shipt was it prepared us for this. Being early employees there, we saw a company grow and scale extremely quickly, and that included at a company level and then at a personal level, us learning how to manage and capitalize on extremely fast growth,” he said. “This could easily be overwhelming in a lot of cases, but we really feel like Shipt set us up for success in terms of how to handle explosive growth and capitalize on it as best you can.”
