Austin-Based LanternCRM Raises $250k as a Salesforce Alternative
AUSTIN, TX (PRWEB) May 06, 2014 -- LanternCRM, a growing customer relationship management (CRM) solution, today announced $250k in funding from angel investors Jason Cohen of WP Engine, Rob Taylor of Black Locus, Mikey Trafton of BlueFish, Bill Boebel of Pingboard, Pat Matthews formerly of Rackspace, and Joshua Baer of OtherInbox and the Capital Factory Fund.
The funding comes as signups increased 300% over a period of three months, which included the Austin Chamber of Commerce. The company is now scaling the team in preparation to keep up with demand and further grow their client base.
LanternCRM differentiates itself from industry leaders Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics in their ability to perfect core features the market has long requested including automatic email tracking, phone service, and integration with hundreds of existing business services.
"We found that a vast majority of users either hated their current CRMs or didn't use them because they required too much manual data entry,” said Alex Smith, CEO and Co-Founder. “By focusing on automatically importing from existing systems like email, calendar, and phone, our users can focus on building their business instead of maintaining information in their CRM. Whether our users login every day or once a month, LanternCRM requires no manual entry."
LanternCRM was founded following Smith’s acceptance to the University of Texas’ Longhorn Startup class, led by esteemed professors Bob Metcalfe and Joshua Baer. After witnessing a successful semester from Smith, Baer extended an offer for LanternCRM to be the first Longhorn Startup team accepted into Capital Factory’s Accelerator program.
“The CRM market for enterprises may be maturing, but the market for small businesses is wide open and growing, fueled by the popularity of mobile and tablet computing. Entire industries that still operate on pen and paper or email and spreadsheets are going to be transformed over the next few years,” said Baer.
The team recently unveiled their newest release to address the influx of demands from larger enterprises while maintaining the simplicity that drove their initial growth.
“One important addition is our Spreadsheet View, allowing users to edit information in a way everyone is familiar with. This allows those comfortable with spreadsheets to make an easier transition to LanternCRM,” said David Weiser, COO and Co-Founder.
About LanternCRM
LanternCRM crafts small business software to help them communicate effectively with their customers. Calls, emails, support tickets, and more are automatically imported and organized building awareness company-wide. http://www.lanterncrm.com
Chad Sakonchick, LanternCRM, http://www.lanterncrm.com, +1 5128725576, [email protected]
Share this article