Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Launchpad Leads $1.2M round in Repsly, Creating Croatia to Boston Innovation District Connection


Launchpad Venture Group has just led a $1.2 Million Angel investment round in Repsly,  a B2B Mobile Cloud solution provider that has recently relocated from Zagreb, Croatia,  to Boston’s waterfront Innovation District.

 "I have been following and advising Repsly for over a year, as I was attracted to their extremely positive customer references, triple-digit organic revenue growth and the high quality solution they have developed to address market needs," says Tim Curran, Repsly board member and Launchpad Venture Group member.

Investors in this round of funding include  Launchpad, First Beverage Group,  and K5 Ventures. The company, which has been operating since 2010 as Salespod, is a SaaS business that manages the activities of field reps and the data that they collect. Repsly's clients include companies such as L'Oreal, Nike Golf, KIA Motors, Keune, Philips, Doctors Urgent Care, Schweigen Home Appliances, and Lavazza, who use this solution to drive higher accountability and efficiency within their field teams. Customers in 40 countries also leverage Repsly to gather and analyze data generated by their reps about everything from product performance, to competitive actions, customer demographics, and service delivery.


Tom First, Managing Partner, First Beverage Ventures and founder of Nantucket Nectars said that the firm was interested in Repsly because the solution is such a strong fit for companies selling consumer products through retail channels. "We are very excited to be involved with Repsly, not only because of the impact they can have on food and beverage companies, but because of their broad applicability to any organization with teams in the field."

Repsly will use the funding to invest in growth. "We have developed a disruptive product and built great success with clients around the world," said company Co-Founder and CEO Marko Kovac. "This round of funding will enable us to aggressively spread the word about Repsly by allowing us to invest in sales and marketing infrastructure." The company recently hired Richard April as Senior Vice President of Marketing to build its sales and marketing organization.

Here in the Northeast, we have all heard  how Boston's Waterfront Innovation District has been drawing companies inward from the burbs, but this is the first one lured from Croatia.
  
To our new friends from Zagreb we raise our glasses and say “Zhivio Boston! Dom graha i bakalara gdje Lowells govore samo sa Cabotima, a Caboti samo sa Bogom.”

Or, in translation: Here's to dear old Boston, The home of the bean and the cod, Where Lowells speak only to Cabots, And Cabots speak only to God."
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