Austin-based company harnesses capital to execute its customer acquisition strategy and advance its product vision
Austin, TX – Rallyhood, an online and mobile app where groups come together to get things done, announces the closing of a $1.3 million round of funding. The financing was led by Tom Meredith, Co-founder and Managing Partner of Meritage Capital and former SVP and CFO at Dell, Inc. The capital will be used to execute Rallyhood’s customer acquisition strategy and advance its product vision to make user’s lives easier and group experiences better.
“Ironically, the productivity marketplace is a mess. The existing social offerings separate personal and work groups, which adds noise and complexity to our daily lives,” said Tom Meredith. “Rallyhood’s holistic approach mirrors how we live our lives and does something no other social platform does—it saves us time.”
“These days we are all so busy. So much of life is spent in some kind of group—work, causes, friends, kids activities—we all want to do our best and do our part,” said Patti Rogers, Founder and CEO of Rallyhood. “The problem is we are asked to login all over the place and suffer through reply-all chaos, lost attachments, and confusion over calendars. The end result is that we disengage and the community is weakened instead of empowered. Rallyhood is here to change that by centralizing all the tools. When things are well organized, it frees us up to actually enjoy the experience.”
Rallyhood allows any group or individual to start a free social site in seconds and get an instant suite of tools for sharing information—calendars, files, messages, photos, sign-ups, and money collection. The web and mobile app is quickly gaining traction with major organizational users, including:
· Girl Scouts of Central Texas: Now using Rallyhood as the official group communication and organization tool for 15,000+ volunteers and 22,000+ girls across 46 counties.
· Komen Austin: Selected Rallyhood as the primary platform for organizing volunteer-led race committees in the Austin area.
· Austin Habitat for Humanity: Using Rallyhood to centralize communication for Board of Directors and committees.
· YMCA of Austin: Over 2,500 members using Rallyhood since September 2011 to communicate and organize youth sports leagues.
“Other online groups were clumsy, with incomplete solutions for what we really needed,” said Cheyenne Richards, Program Lead for the Girl Scouts of Central Texas. “As an organization run by 90% volunteers across the state, the Girl Scouts needs a simple, single place for getting organized. Rallyhood is the first and only application that intuitively recognizes that the more organized we are, the better we are at delivering on our mission. And the better culture and connection we build with our members, who are the real champions of our organization.”
Other prominent angel investors and strategic partners who invested in this round include Calendar Holdings, Calendars.com, Herb Simon, Jeff Serra, Bill Stapleton and Marc Winkleman.
“Investing in Rallyhood made perfect sense for Calendars.com since the calendar is central to Rallyhood’s mission of helping people organize their lives—from business to volunteer work to social events—all with simple tools and in one place. We are thrilled to support Rallyhood and are excited about the many synergies that exist between our companies,” says Paul Hoffman, COO of Calendar Holdings, LLC and Calendars.com, LLC.
The benefits of centralizing tools and information are proven in business, but Rallyhood is the first tool that brings social and productivity together to empower groups regardless of size, purpose, or life span. The cloud-based application previously received $750,000 in angel funding that was used to develop the product and run extensive beta testing.
The Series A funding allows Rallyhood to hire seven new positions in marketing, operations, and product development. The company will move into an incubator space at 8th and Congress, hosted by advisor Kevin Embree, Founder of Online Persona, Inc. and past Senior Executive from HomeAway and eBay.
About Rallyhood
Founded in 2010 by mom and entrepreneur Patti Rogers, Rallyhood is the only social app that incorporates all the group communication, coordination, and sharing tools in one place to make it easier for everyone. Rallyhood’s beta testing generated 7,500 active users across 2,000 Rally-Sites. Rogers founded Rallyhood with the core belief that great things happen when we come together and with a personal mission to de-clutter the group experience so we can all enjoy it. For more information, visit www.Rallyhood.com.
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