[Updated 4:45 pm to correct headline, copy reflecting Trinity as lead investor. Previous information provided by company spokesperson was incorrect.] Well, that was quick. Act-On Software, a Beaverton, OR-based online marketing company, has raised a $10 million financing round led by Trinity Ventures at what founder and CEO Raghu Raghavan calls “a substantial step up in valuation,” to about $40 million.
Act-On just raised a $4 million Series B round last November, co-led by Seattle’s Voyager Capital and Silicon Valley-based U.S. Venture Partners. Those two firms participated in the Series C round announced today.
Act-On makes marketing and sales software for e-mail, Web, and social media campaigns. Its clients include Cisco Systems, Progressive Insurance, Motorola and IBM. (Cisco also is an investor.) The company is “predicting close to 300% growth in 2011” based on its first-quarter revenue, according to today’s news release.
Raghavan told Xconomy that Act-On actually wasn’t out looking for more money, but got enough inquiries from investors that the board decided to start briefing some of them on its progress. That led to multiple term sheets in the span of about a month, and “there was a feeding frenzy at the end,” Raghavan said.
“We didn’t need the money for operations,” he said. “I think it was just a case of us being able to speed things up dramatically.” Specifically, the company’s release said the money will go toward expanding marketing efforts, along with global sales and service teams. Act-On opened a European sales operation last month, partnering with Pipedream Marketing.
Raghavan was previously chief technology officer and co-founder of digital marketing firm Responsys. That company moved to California, but Raghavan stayed in Oregon and started Act-On. As he told The Oregonian’s Mike Rogoway last year, “It’s ridiculous to think you can’t succeed in Oregon.”
