Startup attracts high-profile new and follow-on investors, drawn to ground-breaking social media marketing dashboard.
(New York, N.Y. – July 28, 2017) – Lately, the first self-service SaaS platform for collaborative marketing management, announced today its Series Seed Extension Round closed on June 6, 2017 and raised $500,000.
The over-subscribed round, which includes such industry luminaries as Joanne Wilson, Angel Investor, Blogger, and Co-Founder of Women’s Entrepreneur Festival at Gotham Gal Ventures, further secures Lately's position in bringing to market its innovative solution. Other notable new investors include Jerry Shereshewsky, former VP of the Wunderman Agency and former VP of Young and Rubicam, two of world’s largest marketing agencies; and Chris Leong of New York Angels. Follow-on investors include Harvard Business School Alumni Angels of New York, Robert McCausland; entrepreneur and telecommunications executive, Peter Schweinfurth; CEO of Align Capital and Founder of Brand Equity Partners, Jamie Propp; Founder and CEO of Tech Dad, Inc. and Marc and Lynn Wunderman, first family of the Wunderman Agency.
Lately, which announced in August 2016 it raised $950,000 in its Series Seed Round, offers the first SaaS marketing resource management platform for SMBs that unifies marketing processes and tools onto a single dashboard, so that marketers can collaboratively plan, execute and analyze all their marketing, intuitively.
“Lately and its investors are going to end the nightmare of ill-fitting marketing management software,” said Kate Bradley Chernis, founder and CEO of Lately. “We’re putting the power to understand, organize and execute all marketing activities from one place at an affordable price point into the hands of everyone, from high-powered CMOs to under-resourced nonprofits, including the 30 million small business owners in the U.S., all of whom desperately need more efficient marketing management tools.”
In addition to its successful Series Seed Extension Round, Lately recently graduated from the 2015 Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator (ERA) and the 2016-2017 Grand Central Tech (GCT) program, two of New York City’s most prestigious accelerators with one- and two-percent acceptance rates, respectively. Lately is also the recipient of a $355,000 Microsoft grant, and a $12,000 IBM grant. Lately has additionally formed a partnership with PureMatter, a global leader in SMB digital, social media and content-marketing coaching, led by world-renowned marketing strategists, keynote speakers (TED talks), and bestselling authors Bryan Kramer and Courtney Smith. The partnership is designed to leverage PureMatter's how-to instructional content, workshops, H2H Human Marketing Club and 500,000+ social-media audience to increase Lately's content, reach and SMB research data. Lately has also become a Pledge 1% supporter company.
“It’s rare to come across such a kickass combination of experience, innovation and energy as you find at Lately,” said Peter Schweinfurth. “Kate and her team are poised to solve a big problem that’s crying out for a smart solution.”
“Frankly, everyone involved in marketing at any level needs Lately,” said Jerry Shereshewsky, who describes himself as one of the last Mad Men from advertising’s golden age. “I only wish I’d had this when I was navigating through the forest of complex tasks that come with any marketing push. It offers simplification and coordination previously unheard of.”
Eight years ago, Chernis was driven to hatch the idea for Lately in response to her frustrations as the owner of a successful marketing agency that served large corporations, nonprofits and small business owners. The first iteration of Lately was an elaborate, comprehensive 14-tabbed spreadsheet that was a revelation to then-client Walmart, and the best tool available to organize multi-channel marketing campaigns. Basic as it was, the spreadsheet became beloved and invaluable to all her clients – whether Walmart, startups, small and medium-sized businesses or nonprofits. Chernis gathered together a team determined to develop something better by focusing on creating a self-service, spreadsheet-free SaaS platform that automatically wrangles the typically clumsy and expensive mix of disparate marketing tools and platforms into a sleek, intuitive solution, and Lately was born.
“Our successful Series Seed Extension funding and the support of our valued investors, along with the votes of confidence we’ve had from industry bellwethers such as ERA, Grand Central Tech and Microsoft, means Lately is super-charged to serve the millions of professionals for whom enterprise marketing software costs way too much and is overwhelmingly complicated,” said Chernis. “Lately does for marketing what QuickBooks and Salesforce did for accounting and sales. It is set to be the must-have marketing tool for businesses everywhere.”
To learn more about Lately, visit http://trylately.com or email kate@trylately.com.
Lately is the first self-service SaaS platform that unifies marketing processes and tools to help marketers collaboratively plan, execute and analyze all their marketing from one, central dashboard. Each year, according to IBM, marketers waste upwards of $83 Billion by failing to organize their teams and master fundamental marketing processes common to every business regardless of industry or size. Lately consolidates and streamlines people, processes and tools into a single dashboard, pulling back the “black curtain” of marketing so anyone – from CMOs to nonprofits to 30 million U.S. small business owners – can understand and execute all their marketing in one place at an affordable price point.
Led by Harvard Business School Alumni Angels of New York (HBSAANY), Lately closed its Series Seed Round in August 2016, with $950,000, and its Series Seed Extension Round in June 2017, with an additional $500,000. Lately was one of only 19 startups selected out of more than 1,000 for the 2016-17 class at Grand Central Tech, one of the most prestigious accelerators in New York City. Lately is also a 2015 graduate of the Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator (ERA), as well as a recipient of a $355,000 Microsoft grant and a $12,000 IBM grant.
To learn more about Lately and how you can be part of its success, visit http://trylately.com or email kate@trylately.com. Keep up with Lately’s latest on Twitter: @trylately.
Contact: press@trylately.com
