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Kaleo, the creator of an enterprise SaaS application that puts the answers to essential business questions at users’ fingertips, has closed $1.5 million funding. This round, intended to expand Kaleo’s device reach and the company’s user base, was led by Greycroft Partners, with participation from Double M Partners, TenOneTen Ventures and others. The funding builds on the $500,000 investment from Pasadena based Idealab.
“There is time and investment required to train employees on any enterprise software tool. At times the cost of on-boarding will even outweigh the productivity gains from the software,” said Ian Sigalow, co-founder and partner at Greycroft Partners. “Kaleo has developed a new approach to training and knowledge management, allowing its customers to have expert advice at their fingertips, inside any cloud-based application. This represents the next wave in enterprise knowledge sharing, expert-validated answers to any question.”
“Kaleo’s curation and discovery application is a turnkey solution that yields measurable ROI,” added Mark Mullen, founder and managing partner at Double M Partners. “The distinction between ‘knowledge sharing’ and ‘conversation’ has been a judgment call in the past. Kaleo’s approach to behind-the-scenes curation lets those gems surface and gain recognition, additionally helping company leaders identify trending topics and emerging expertise.”
Dell, Ventura Foods and other companies in the entertainment and home-building industries now use Kaleo’s enterprise knowledge network to collect and share previously untapped knowledge. Authorized users use a personalized dashboard to search for reliable and accurate information on any topic, ranging from product to process related questions.
”Our solution fits hand-in-glove with business applications our customers are already using, said Phil Hui-Bon-Hoa, CEO at Kaleo. “We’re proud to say we were able to create a robust yet elegant application that immediately adds value to any enterprise experiencing technological and process change. With this funding, we are now eager to take this ready-to-go solution to broader audiences.”
Also, Kaleo has brought on sales veteran William J. O’Brien in the post of Chief Revenue Officer. Prior to Kaleo, Mr. O’Brien helped Vignette Corporation become the fastest growing enterprise software company in industry history with annual revenues growing from $3 million to over $500 million in a three-year period. In addition, Mark Mullen will be joining the Kaleo Board of Directors.
Kaleo was started in 2011 after Phil Hui-Bon-Hoa collaborated with several industry executives looking for the best way to quickly and effectively share knowledge while simultaneously creating a corporate asset. Mr. Hui-Bon-Hoa formerly worked with John Lynch and re-partnered with him to create Kaleo software. Mr. Lynch is now the CTO of Kaleo.
