Social media monitoring and business networking software just got a little hotter. Jive Software, the Portland, OR-based maker of social business software, announced last night it has raised a $12 million Series B round from Sequoia Capital. Sequoia previously invested $15 million in Jive in 2007. Jive says the money will be used to expand its product development, as well as enlist new partners and hire more sales and customer support people.
It’s a huge vote of confidence in Jive, and it speaks to the increasing importance of software that helps companies collaborate, network, and build communities around their brands and products. Last month, Jive released a new tool for monitoring social media and helping businesses engage with online communities—a trend that several other Northwest companies are pursuing, such as Seattle-based Appature, Marchex, and Visible Technologies.
Back in March, Jive rolled out an updated version of its flagship product, a platform that combines software to help employees collaborate more effectively with tools for building online communities. It was an important part of Jive’s strategy to sign up more big companies as customers, and it seems to be working—in addition to giants like Intel, Nike, Electronic Arts, SAP, and VMware, Jive has added Cricket Wireless, Experian, InterContinental Hotels Group, Lufthansa, McAfee, and others this year. The company says its revenues in the third quarter of 2009 were double those from the same period last year, and it has maintained profitability.
On his company blog, Jive CEO Dave Hersh wrote, “Jive is in the midst of the greatest period of product innovation in the company’s history. We have recently and will soon deliver new products that will push the envelope on what people think Social Business Software can do.”
