Inkling Raises $25 Million in Funding to Empower the Deskless Worker

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 13, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Inkling, the leader in mobile communications for the deskless worker, today announced a $25 million Series E round, bringing the total funding to date to $95 million.  Sapphire Ventures led the round with participation from current investors Sequoia Capital and Tenaya Capital. The company will use the new funding to expand its product and sales efforts globally.

Today, 75 percent of U.S. workers perform their jobs without sitting in front of a desk or computer. Think of the restaurant worker, sales person, field service technician, or retail employee. Information technology has not played a transformative role in their lives.  In fact, employers often inform and equip these workers by shipping paper binders or distributing static PDF files. However, the broadening availability and affordability of mobile technologies is finally changing this dynamic.

Inkling lets enterprises communicate with deskless workers and enables measurement of employee engagement and compliance. Real-time updates ensure that field employees are always looking at the most up-to-date information. Built-in analytics allows employers to correlate usage data with critical performance metrics like customer satisfaction, revenue, and brand consistency.

"Mobile devices are finally poised to change the work lives of tens of millions of deskless employees, so the opportunity is massive" said Matt MacInnis, CEO of Inkling. "We are excited to scale our business alongside Nino and the entire Sapphire Ventures team, a team that has deep enterprise software experience, a differentiated business development platform, and a track record of working with growth-stage companies."

Over the past year, Inkling has grown its customer base to include top 10 firms in the insurance, retail, restaurant, pharmaceutical, energy, and manufacturing industries. As a recent example, McDonald's rolled out Inkling to roughly 15,000 restaurants. Inkling also achieved a key milestone this year, surpassing one million licenses sold, and expanded its executive team to include new leaders in both marketing and product.

"Along with its incredible base of customers, we believe Inkling has a deep technology advantage in serving distributed workforces across a wide range of industries," said Nino Marakovic, CEO and managing director of Sapphire Ventures. "Inkling's customers have shared with us firsthand the transformational impact of the company's technology on the lives of over a million workers. We look forward to helping Inkling tap into Sapphire's own enterprise network to further enable the company to grow and improve the work lives of tens of millions more people worldwide."

With this new funding, Marakovic will join Inkling's board of directors.

About Inkling Systems, Inc.

Inkling is on a mission to transform the way people work. Founded in 2009 and backed by Sequoia Capital, Sapphire Ventures, and Tenaya Capital, Inkling's mobile communication platform allows enterprises to convey critical information to their deskless workers. Employees today expect to access accurate and compelling information on any mobile device, yet enterprises still ship paper binders or print static PDF and Word files. Companies use Inkling to convey mission critical information via video, interactive images, dynamic documents, and/or alerts. Using Inkling, enterprises enforce their brand standards and deliver exceptional customer experiences.

About Sapphire Ventures

Sapphire Ventures is a venture capital firm focused on helping innovative technology companies become global category leaders. Leveraging nearly two decades of experience and an extensive global enterprise network, Sapphire Ventures invests capital, resources and expertise to enable its portfolio companies to scale rapidly. Whether entrepreneurs sell to businesses, consumers or both, Sapphire Ventures offers a platform for business development and operational excellence to help them accelerate growth. With over $2.4 billion under management via direct growth investments and early-stage fund investments, Sapphire Ventures is positioned to elevate companies to the global stage. Find us in Palo Alto and London and at www.sapphireventures.com

SOURCE Inkling