And more recently, it has seen a boost, specifically in the last twelve months, as new Calendly users have emerged, as a result of how we are living. Calendly is already profitable, and it has been for years. The wide range of its use cases, and the virality of that growth strategy, have been winners. Its growth, meanwhile, has to date been based mostly around a very organic strategy: Calendly invites become links to Calendly itself, so people who use it and like it can (and do) start to use it, too. #350m openview venture partners iconiq proPricing ranges from free (one calendar/one user/one event) to premium ($8/month) and pro ($12/month) for more calendars, events, integrations and features, with bigger packages for enterprises also available. It’s a platform that provides a quick way to manage open spaces in your calendar for people to book appointments with you in those spaces, which then also books out the time in calendars like Google’s or Microsoft Outlook - with a growing number of tools to enhance that experience, including the ability to pay for a service in the event that your appointment is not a business meeting but, say, a yoga class. Not bad for a company that before now had raised just $550,000, including the life savings of the founder and CEO, Tope Awotona, to initially get off the ground.Ĭalendly is a freemium software-as-a-service, built around what is essentially a very simple piece of functionality. The funding round includes both primary and secondary money (slightly more of the latter than the former, from what I understand) and values the Atlanta-based startup at over $3 billion. Today comes news from a startup that has been a part of that trend: Calendly, a popular cloud-based service that people use to set up and confirm meeting times with others, has closed an investment of $350 million from OpenView Venture Partners and Iconiq. The “future of work” - cloud services, communications, productivity apps - has become “the way we work now.” And companies that have identified ways to help with this are seeing a boom. Now, Awotona has his sights set on $1 billion in revenue, he said in the announcement.One big theme in tech right now is the rise of services to help us keep working through lockdowns, office closures, and other Covid-19 restrictions. In about five years after its launch, Calendly was seeing a 100% growth rate with more than 30 million people using the software. #350m openview venture partners iconiq serialThis fundraising round is Calendly’s first since receiving $550,000 from local firm Atlanta Ventures and OpenView, according to a Calendly spokesperson.Īwotona founded Calendly in 2013 at the Atlanta Tech Village, a startup incubator started by serial software entrepreneur David Cummings.Ĭummings provided Calendly with its first investment through Atlanta Ventures, which is also based in the Village. “While we considered outside investment an unnecessary distraction, we made the decision to partner with OpenView and Iconiq because of their insight and extended network within the tech industry,” Awotona continued in the announcement. “Our profitable, unique, product-led growth model has led to Calendly becoming the most used, most integrated, most loved scheduling platforms for individuals and large enterprises alike,” said CEO Tope Awotona, who was named an Atlanta Business Chronicle 40 Under 40 honoree.
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