17hats Raises $4M Led by Wavemaker Partners

PASADENA, Calif., Oct. 15, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- 17hats, the all-in-one business management solution for solopreneurs, announced that the company has raised $4 million in Series A funding led by Wavemaker Partners with participation from other prominent private investors. Talmadge O'Neill and Harry Tsao, founders of Mezi Media, and Tamim Mourad, founder of Price Grabber, have joined the financing round.  This new round of financing will enable 17hats to expand development, marketing and education.

17hats is a cloud-based application that combines everything solopreneurs, freelancers and microbusinesses need to manage their business in one, easy-to-use system. From booking clients, to managing projects, to controlling finances, 17hats simplifies and automates core business processes. The platform automates tedious repetitive administrative tasks and saves entrepreneurs from the costs and difficulties of juggling multiple business apps.

Since launching in October 2014, 17hats has grown to serve 10,000 paying customers. They include photographers, developers, interior designers, business coaches, event planners, bookkeepers, consultants and other solopreneurs who work with outside clients. 17hats aims to serve the global freelance community, which now has 25 to 60 million people in the U.S. alone. As of September 2015, 17hats has facilitated more than $30 million worth of bookings.

"We discovered that solopreneurs are a huge, underserved community, so we built a software platform that addresses their pain points," said Donovan Janus, founder and CEO of 17hats. "Clearly we struck a chord. The response from customers has been extremely overwhelming and their feedback has helped us improve the platform. We're helping entrepreneurs follow their passion and this funding round will allow us to do that on a much larger scale."

Over the past year, 17hats has done several integrations that improve the user experience. In July 2015, 17hats introduced an integration with Intuit that allows users to link their 17hats account to more than 20,000 different banks for more streamlined bookkeeping.  In September 2015, 17hats announced a partnership with ShootProof, a photo gallery, proofing and sales platform. The integration allows photographers to manage their ShootProof galleries, track client orders and sync their bookkeeping in 17hats.

In addition to integrations, 17hats has released many new features since the launch. They include foreign currency support, white-labeled client pages, embeddable lead capture forms, recurring payments and installment plans. Also to be released soon, 17hats will introduce Lead Management, a tool that automates the intake of new customers. It includes a referral system that tracks the source of new leads (news article, social media posts, advertisement, etc.) as well as dedicated dashboards for Leads and Projects. 

"We're very excited to once again lead this funding round for 17hats," said Eric Manlunas, Managing Partner of Wavemaker Partners. "While we had a clear path to sustainability with the $1.35M seed round we led just nine months ago, we thought it made total sense to further capitalize on the momentum the company has been experiencing.  This new round of financing will further accelerate the company's growth in an effort to become the leading provider of business automation tools for the micro businesses," added Manlunas.

About 17hats
17hats is cloud-based all-in-one business management solution built for solopreneurs, freelancers and microbusinesses.  17hats provides a single hub for email communications, quotes, contracts, project management, bookkeeping and more so that entrepreneurs can follow their passion instead of fumble with multiple tools.  Designed to eliminate busywork, the platform also simplifies repetitive tasks with templates and automated workflows.  Today, more than 10,000 entrepreneurs use 17hats to get organized, save time and end the chaos of juggling multiple business apps.  17hats is based in Pasadena, California.  Learn more at http://www.17hats.com/.

Wavemaker Partners
Wavemaker Partners is an early-stage, cross-border venture capital firm with dual headquarters in Los Angeles and Singapore. It aims to back the best founders in Southern California and Southeast Asia. Since 2003, it has invested in more than 180 Internet, Mobile and Enterprise technology startups. Wavemaker Partners is a member of the Draper Venture Network, the world's leading venture capital collective with 10 firms spread across 4 continents.

SOURCE 17hats

Related Links

http://www.17hats.com