Podium, the leading customer communication platform for local businesses, announced that it has raised a $60 million Series B growth round of funding led by IVP with participation from Accel, Summit Partners, GV (formerly Google Ventures), and Y Combinator.

Podium launched in 2014 as a product to help local businesses get honest and timely online reviews. Since then, the company has developed additional products to create a communication platform facilitating convenient interactions for any company that interacts with its customers through a physical location. Podium’s platform now supports customer messaging, reviews, webchat and customer feedback using channels that customers actually use and trust. In less than four years, the Podium platform has been adopted by nearly 20,000 businesses that drive over 4 million customer interactions per month.

“This investment marks a big milestone in Podium’s growth. Local businesses and service providers comprise roughly a third of the entire non-farm GDP. The vast majority of these companies aren’t directly competing with online retailers for their services or products, but they are competing against their convenience. This investment will allow Podium to continue providing new tools to bridge that level of convenience and modernize the way these businesses communicate on a local level,” said Eric Rea, co-founder and CEO of Podium.

Podium will be using the funding to further develop existing and future products. Due to increased demand from mid-market and enterprise clients, Podium will also be developing products and features to better serve these customers as well as expanding into more international markets.

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“Podium has become one of the most promising tools a local business could use. This market is absolutely immense. By addressing an overlooked area where local businesses and services have been woefully underserved, Podium’s technology allows for these companies to easily adapt and conveniently communicate with their customers,” said Sandy Miller, general partner at IVP.

Podium started 2015 with an employee count of five. By the beginning of 2018, that number has grown to more than 300. Podium plans to add another 100 employees by the end of the year, using the resources from this round to double its engineering staff.

“The growth Podium has experienced in just four years puts them on track to be one of the most elite SaaS companies we’ve seen. As a firm, we have been able to work with some of the largest and most successful SaaS companies in the world. We could not be happier to add Podium to that list and being a partner in their growth story,” added Tom Loverro, principal at IVP.

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