Yammer Inc., which provides social networks specifically for enterprise, has secured $85 million in its fifth round of funding led by DFJ Growth, part of the core team at Draper Fisher Jurvetson. Additionally, today the company will launch its first advertising campaign.
This latest round brings the company’s total financing to $142 million. Randy Glein, managing director at DFJ Growth, will have an observer’s seat on Yammer’s board of directors.
Additional participation was from a number of sources including: new investors Meritech Capital Partners, Jeff Skoll’s investment arm Capricorn Investment Group, Khosla Ventures and CrunchFund; previous investors Charles River Ventures, Emergence Capital, Founders Fund, Social+Capital Partnership and U.S. Venture Partners; and angel investors Bill Lee, Max Levchin, and NFL Hall of Famer Ronnie Lott.
Yammer will use the financing to grow its sales and engineering teams in the U.S. and internationally. It also will consider strategic acquisitions and invest in building brand awareness among enterprise buyers.
Yammer enables business-oriented social communications within organizations, making it simple to collaborate across departments, geographies, content and applications. The basic version is free, with additional features available at a premium like administrative and security controls, priority customer service, and a dedicated customer success manager.
The company reports over 4 million corporate users have adopted Yammer in the four years since its launch, and that these users include employees at more than 85 percent of the Fortune 500.
“Yammer launched the category of Enterprise Social Networking and pioneered a new model that drove unprecedented adoption in the enterprise,” said David Sacks, founder and CEO, Yammer. “This significant influx of capital provides us with the resources to expand quickly and strategically, innovate rapidly and extend our market leadership.”
Randy Glein, managing director, DFJ Growth: “In the past few years, Yammer has assembled a world-class team and built a pioneering social networking product for enterprises. Yammer’s customers absolutely love the product and its benefits for their organizations, turning them into brand advocates and helping fuel Yammer’s explosive growth. This financing will enable Yammer to extend its market leadership and seize the massive opportunity in front of them.”
Chamath Palihapitiya, founder and managing partner, Social+Capital Partnership: “When we first invested in Yammer, it was because the company reminded us so much of the early days at Facebook. David and his team have built a truly unique business — an enterprise company with fundamental product value that grows like a consumer company through virality and product engagement. We were excited to help lead this new round and believe that Yammer is the only company in the enterprise collaboration space that really understands how to build social products and look forward to more eye-popping growth in the years to come.”
Paul Madera, managing director, Meritech Capital Partners: “Meritech has a targeted strategy in investing in the fastest growing tech companies with unique technology. We recognized Yammer as the leader in enterprise social networking, and we are pleased to be chosen to join this great team and its backers.”
Stephen George, co-founder and CIO, Capricorn Investment Group: “Yammer has a preternatural understanding of where the enterprise software market is headed, allowing them to remain one step ahead of the competition through constant innovation. We look forward to watching the company’s continued success as it builds on its strengths.”
Peter Thiel, partner, Founders Fund: “Having worked with David previously at PayPal, I know his ability to lead a company to greatness. David and his team built Yammer to be social from the start and with their relentless focus on usability, Yammer succeeds across every industry and geography where it is deployed. Yammer was the first mover in the enterprise social networking space and is surely the best, making work massively more efficient.”
Max Levchin, angel investor: “As an early investor in Yammer, it’s been impressive to watch the company not only launch the category of enterprise social networking, but bring it into the mainstream. It is obvious that Yammer will continue to define the future of how we work.”
Related links:
Press release – http://tinyurl.com/7spct5o
Photo by Flickr user 401K, used under Creative Commons license
