A local startup that aims to be a “virtual assistant” to the workforce has landed $1.5 million in initial funding led by local seed-stage investor CincyTech.
The Avondale-based startup capital firm announced Wednesday the closing of a $1.5 million seed investment in TeamCentral, a Cincinnati-based tech company. CincyTech led the round with participation from TeamCentral investment partners.
TeamCentral provides a low-code software platform that enables connections between applications to be made more quickly by IT professionals, often with less experience.
Users are guided by virtual assistants to complete integrations, enabling some tasks to be completed by employees without formal IT training.
Co-founder Marc Johnson said the idea stemmed from a program designed to encourage innovation at his employer, Centric Consulting, one of the region’s largest IT-related firms.
After it was successfully piloted internally at Centric, Johnson launched TeamCentral in 2018.
“Our product enables companies to achieve competitive growth without adding the IT expenses traditionally associated with business expansion,” Johnson said in a release. “Our customers tell us their operations can scale while becoming leaner, which is a huge benefit when tech resources are scarce.”
Since 2020, the platform has been implemented at a number of companies. TeamCentral now processes millions of transactions a week, and the number of installs continues to grow. The company maintains business operations in 13 cities in the U.S. and in India and has three employees.
Andy Park, a former Centric Consulting partner and TeamCentral co-founder, said the initial institutional funding from CincyTech will help expand its product.
“(That will) reduce the time it takes for our customers and partners to deploy automation, learn from their data, become more scalable, and thus profitable,” Park said.
The round is the first publicly announced by CincyTech this year. Its most recent portfolio additions include business networking site developer Peerro, biotech firm Eikonoklastes Therapeutics and drug development company Kurome Therapeutics.
CincyTech, which is based in Avondale, wrapped its fifth fund last year, raising $19.7 million in new money. The firm primarily focuses its investments in Ohio and, principally, Greater Cincinnati.
Mike Venerable, CincyTech CEO, said TeamCentral’s platform solves a critical need: using data to help businesses achieve a competitive advantage.
“Our shared dependency on software systems to run everything from global manufacturers to public schools is obvious,” Venerable said. “No business can run on one system, creating the need for integration of systems and data inside the walls as well as external partners’ systems. Central is designed to simplify integration of systems and workflows, reducing workload for business and technical resources.”
