returns, what are you going to do with all this cash?’ And typically the answer is, ‘We are waiting for an M&A opportunity.’ But dynamic discounting allows you to invest that cash at double-digit returns into your own supply chain. And if an M&A opportunity target does come along, you can just stop.”
Interestingly, Matrix learned that Taulia was on the fundraising trail through AngelList, a San Francisco-based investment opportunity clearinghouse that I profiled back in August. The Angels’ Forum had already invested in the company when a description of Taulia went out to AngelList subscribers. “As soon as that went out, we had 30 requests for introductions from almost every big-name VC in the Valley,” says Meyer. “I couldn’t even follow up on all the requests. But we felt a great personal fit with Josh and a business fit with Matrix and Trinity.”
The $3.2 million in Series A money will allow the company to hire more sales and professional-services staff as well as software engineers, Meyer says. The company is also seeking larger offices.
Eventually, Meyer says, the company plans to build connectors to other brands of ERP software. But SAP is so dominant that Taulia could mine that market alone for years.
“The next one would be Oracle, probably, but to be honest we have more interesting partnerships and products to pursue in 2011, and we are going to look to further platforms in 2012,” Meyer says. “SAP has a 60 percent market share, and in terms of annual spend, the SAP share among the Global 2000 is even higher than that. So SAP integration out of the box is a huge advantage. It doesn’t make sense to try to be on multiple ERPs yet.”
