Startup also earns coveted spot in 2016-2017 class at Grand Central Tech Accelerator
(New York, N.Y. – Sept. 28, 2016) – Lately, the first, self-service SaaS platform that unifies marketing processes and tools to help marketers collaboratively plan, execute and analyze all their marketing from a single dashboard, announced today its Series Seed Round closed on August 26 and raised $950,000.
The round, led by Peter Schweinfurth and Harvard Business School Alumni Angels of New York (HBSAANY), positions Lately to bring to market its innovative solution to help anyone – from CMOs to nonprofits to 30 million U.S. small business owners – better understand, organize and execute all of their marketing from one place at an affordable price point.
Seed Round investors also include Isaac Oates, Founder and CEO of Justworks, Alan Chung, Founder and CEO of Perka, Robert McCausland, entrepreneur and telecommunications executive, Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator (ERA), a leading tech startup accelerator in New York City, Marc Wunderman formerly of Wunderman Worldwide, the world’s largest direct marketing agency, and venture capital firm Interplay Ventures.
Additional investors include current and former executives from Yahoo, Freshdesk, Ogilvy, Tumblr, the NBA and Disney.
“Lately and its investors are committed to helping marketing and communications professionals better organize and execute marketing campaigns so they can take back the $83 billion that is wasted annually trying to organize campaigns using disparate tools and processes, and instead put that time and money toward growing their bottom lines,” said Kate Bradley Chernis, founder and CEO of Lately.
In addition to its successful Series Seed Round, Lately recently joined the latest class of startups at Grand Central Tech, one of New York City’s most prestigious accelerators with a two-percent acceptance rate. Lately was one of only 19 startups accepted from more than 1,000 applicants. Lately is also a 2015 graduate of the Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator.
“We’re proud to have Lately as a member of our 2016-2017 class at Grand Central Tech,” said Charles Bonello, co-founder and managing director of Grand Central Tech. “Kate and the team are outstanding domain experts that don’t only know the problem, but are uniquely qualified to address a large and lucrative marketplace in an elegant and thoughtful manner.”
Eight years ago, Bradley Chernis hatched the idea for Lately from her own experience as the owner of a successful marketing agency, serving 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. After seeing that her spreadsheet was beloved and invaluable to all her clients, whether Walmart, startups, small and medium-sized businesses or nonprofits, Bradley Chernis assembled a team to build a self-service, spreadsheet-free SaaS platform to automatically wrangle the “Frankenstack” of disparate marketing tools and platforms, and Lately was born.
“Our successful Series Seed Round, the support of our valued investors, and our participation in Grand Central Tech moves Lately further toward its goal of democratizing marketing to serve the millions of professionals for whom enterprise marketing software costing tens of thousands of dollars is out of reach and overwhelmingly complicated,” said Bradley Chernis. “Just as QuickBooks and Salesforce have demystified accounting and sales, Lately will be the go-to 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, marketers waste $83 billion trying to organize their teams, fundamental marketing processes common to every business regardless of industry or size, and the mess of disparate tools infamously known as the marketing “Frankenstack.” Lately consolidates and streamlines people, processes and tools into a single, step-by-step playbook, 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 with $950,000. 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).
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
