Techmate, a New York and Kansas City-based startup offering a SaaS platform for on-demand tech support, has raised $1.2 million and announced plans to further expand its presence throughout the Midwest.
Techmate allows existing IT departments to offer tech support to remote and satellite employees. CEO and co-founder David Brock said that the process saves companies time and money.
"We're really proud to have given companies with distributed offices a new model for managing their tech support while also providing entrepreneurial opportunities for technicians across the country," Brock said in a statement. "This new raise will allow us to even further automate the SaaS aspects of our business that make our solution so unique."
Investors in the round include local firm Bread and Butter Ventures, along with Comeback Capital, Hustle Fund and LAUNCH.
"We believe that Techmate is well-positioned to capitalize on the tailwinds behind distributed offices," Brett Brohl, Bread and Butter managing partner, said in a statement. "David and Nicole are fantastic founders and an example of tremendous market-founder fit. They will enable the future of distributed work."
This is the third investment announced by Bread and Butter since its launch in June. In addition to Brohl, the firm is led by Mary Grove and Stephanie Rich. Rich is the entrepreneur in residence at Techstars Farm to Fork. Grove is a former Google executive. Around two years ago, she moved to Minnesota to become a partner in Revolution and make investments from the firm’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund.
Techmate started as a New York-based company, but began expanding into the Midwest this spring. Co-founder Nicole Beals returned to her hometown of Kansas City to quarantine with her family at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic and established an office in the city.
"Soon after, we started realizing the huge advantages of having a second base here and decided to make this an office," Beals said in an email.
Beals now travels back and forth between New York and Kansas City on a monthly basis. Techmate currently has technicians and clients in several other Midwest cities, including Chicago, Milwaukee, Detroit, Cleveland and Minneapolis.
"Our goal is to continue growing these markets, plus add several more where our current clients have expressed a need to support their exploding workforces," Beals said.
Techmate plans to use part of its funding round to expand its team, the majority of which will be in the Midwest. The company is currently hiring a sales director and will soon build out its engineering team.
"I think our experience resonates with many other startups who now have the ability to hire remotely," Beals said. "It no longer makes sense to focus just on coastal or large cities. We can almost double the runway we have by using the Midwest as a base."
