A Chapel Hill technology startup led by a ChannelAdvisor veteran has announced a $5 million fundraise – with plans to onshore developers.
RepVue, which has developed a ratings platform for sales organizations, is growing – faster than CEO Ryan Walsh had initially anticipated, he said.
Walsh said the $1 million the firm closed last year was supposed to last through the end of this year. But growth just kept coming, expediting the latest raise.
The company is at more than 60,000 ratings on its platform, compared to just 7,500 at the beginning of 2021, Walsh said.
“The platform is really taking off,” he said. “Investor interest is primarily driven from the interest sales professionals have in our platform.”
Right now, the 11-person team relies on offshore developers. But with the new tranche of capital, Walsh plans to build a development team in the U.S. He’s currently hiring in product development.
Walsh, who left a 15-year career at Raleigh-based ChannelAdvisor (Nasdaq: BAND) five years ago, started the company to increase transparency. He said a lack of transparency among sales organizations can mean high attrition and a low percentage of people getting quota. RepVue seeks to solve the transparency issue by allowing sales professionals to anonymously and objectively rate their experiences with a particular employer.
The result is a data trove that his former boss at ChannelAdvisor, Scot Wingo, has equated to a “Match.com” of sorts for sales reps. Wingo, through his new Triangle Tweener Fund, invested in the latest round for RepVue.
The company said it secured the seed financing from multiple investors, including S3 Ventures and TDF Ventures. Existing investors such as Knoll Ventures and Alerion Ventures also participated, as did GTMfund.
