Another local startup has reached unicorn status following a $100 million round of venture capital.
Tackle.io is technically headquartered in Boise, where its co-founders are based, but CEO John Jahnke lives in Orchard Park and Western New York is the company's largest employee cluster.
The Series C round of funding brings the company's valuation to $1.25 billion. Unicorn is the term for startups when private market valuations surpass $1 billion.
Tackle software tools help customers acquire and integrate enterprise software – an area identified several years ago by its leaders as a massive potential market. The startup raised a $35 million round of venture capital earlier this year. Its most recent funding round was co-led by Coatue and Andreessen Horowitz and also included Bessemer Venture Partners.
Jahnke said Tackle's employee count tripled to about 160 this year as its customer base doubled. The company's early premise is proving itself out on the ground.
"Every business-to-business company is trying to figure out how to evolve their buyer and seller experiences to be more digitally powered," he said. "We don't just help them list and launch. We help them scale their revenue through these cloud go-to-market channels. We are very focused on ensuring our customers are capable of selling through the cloud."
Tackle has 17 employees in Western New York in a variety of different functions, including sales, customer success, finance and human resources. While the company prioritizes talent over location in all of its hires, Jahnke said, the employee clusters have happened naturally as Tackle has formed a brand in the marketplace.
"We plan to double in size over the next year," he said. "That's a lot of people, and there is an opportunity for Western New York to be a big part of that."
The company does not plan to establish offices, instead investing in "functional offsites" and other events to get its teams together.
Buffalo's first locally based software unicorn, ACV Auctions, went public on the NASDAQ stock exchange earlier this year.
ACV co-founder Jack Greco was also an investor in Tackle's Series A funding round.
Jahnke was a Tackle investor before he was appointed as the company's CEO. He has become an active angel in Buffalo recently, contributing funding to Circuit Clinical and Verivend, among others.
Jahnke was named one of the top 50 software-as-a-service CEOs in the country by the Software Report this summer.
Tackle is among 32 local startups that have raised private, growth-oriented capital this year. Others include Jerry ($103 million), Squire ($60 million), Centivo ($51 million), Torch Labs ($25 million), CleanFiber ($11.9 million), Circuit Clinical ($7.5 million), Kangarootime ($6 million), SomaDetect ($6 million), Kickfurther ($5.9 million), MimiVax ($5 million), Garwood Medical Devices ($4 million), Joblio ($4 million), Verivend ($2.5 million), HELIXintel ($1.6 million), Ognomy ($1.37 million), OxiWear ($1.25 million), Patient Pattern ($1.2 million), Ellicottville Greens ($1 million), Immersed Games ($540,000), braidbabes ($415,000), MemoryFox ($380,000), Zealot Interactive ($350,000), Zizo Technologies ($200,000), AirExpert ($200,000), Thimble ($165,000), Immunaeon ($100,000)*, Real Talk ($100,000)*, Alo ($100,000)*, Rally (undisclosed), HiOperator (undisclosed) and Classavo (undisclosed).
* UB earmarked $100,000 to these startups through its Cultivator accelerator, but they have only received tranches of the funding thus far.
