Lumavate Secures $3M in Funding
Mark Hill is the chairman and CEO of Lumavate.
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowA Carmel-based tech company has secured a $3 million round of funding. Lumavate, which provides a platform for customers to create cloud-based apps, says it plans to use the funding to expand product offerings and grow its product, sales and marketing teams. The funding round included participation from BioCrossroads, Elevate Ventures and Collina Ventures in Indianapolis, as well as 4G Ventures in California.
In an interview with Inside INdiana Business, Lumavate Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Mark Hill said there is a distinct advantage in having local investors.
"Because there’s already a relationship there, they know us. They know the city. It’s just, frankly, a lot easier," said Hill. "I don’t have to spend the time as much talking about the successes we’ve had in Indy (and) the role that a number of the people on our team have had on those. For example, we have people from Aprimo and ExactTarget and Baker Hill all a part of our team, all having had success here and when I get outside of Indy, there’s less knowledge about that success and the skill set that those people have."
Hill, who also serves as managing partner of Collina Ventures, says Indianapolis is a great place to build a business, touting the technical expertise of the talent in the city and previous successes in the local tech sector.
"It’s also a place that there is some loyalty. We’re not in a place where somebody’s going to join your business and then leave you in six months for the next best thing, so that loyalty gives you a little runway to build out a team and have some of the time that it takes to do that. We also have a whole awesome group of investors and service providers between the law firms and the accounting firms. There’s a lot of people around that can help a young business get going so I remain very bullish on Indy."
The funding round comes more than a year after Lumavate secured $2.5 million in seed funding from investors, also including Collina and 4G.
"We think Lumavate promises to be an important part of our dynamic life sciences ecosystem and our investment portfolio," Nora Doherty, interim president of BioCrossroads, said in a news release. "The proven track record of Lumavate’s leadership team combined with the platform’s applicability to life science and healthcare companies made it an attractive opportunity for our fund. We’re excited about the life sciences and healthcare companies Lumavate is already working with today and the potential it has to drive results for other organizations in these industries."
Lumavate did not provide specific details of the number of jobs it plans to add as a result of the new funding.
In addition to the funding round, the company also announced the launch of new features as part of its platform, including starter kits, which allows customers to quickly create mobile apps for pre-determined cases, such as events and internal communications, among others.
Hill says there is a distinct advantage in having local investors.