Qstream, the Harvard spin-out headed by UCD graduate Duncan Lennox, has raised US$4m from top US investor Excel Venture Management and existing investors Frontline Ventures and Launchpad Venture Group.
The new funds represent the second tranche of a US$6.85m Series A financing, which includes US$2.85m closed in September 2013.
The funding will be used to accelerate the company’s expansion in the estimated $2 billion predictive analytics sector, where Qstream combines the power of mobile, gamification and big data to deliver a new class of business intelligence that helps sales managers quickly and proactively align the behaviors of their sales people with growth initiatives.
Developed at Harvard, Qstream has been scientifically proven in dozens of clinical trials to boost performance with impact to the bottom line. Using Qstream on any mobile device, users respond to scenario-based Q&A challenges via push notifications, followed by brief explanations that strengthen skills in minutes a day.
The company has met its employment target of having at least 16 IT workers in Dublin by the end of 2014.
Lennox co-founded WBT in the 1990s at University College Dublin (UCD)’s computer science department and moved to the US to spearhead the company’s US expansion. WBT still exists today as a subsidiary of IT services giant Avnet.
Qstream’s technology
After WBT Lennox teamed up with Dr Price B Kerfoot, a professor at Harvard Medical School and Qstream was born.
Simple game mechanics drive long-term user engagement, while the platform’s data engine sifts and analyses response data to provide continuous real-time management updates, comparisons and trends on team capabilities, as well as targeted coaching actions that contribute to management’s ability to anticipate gaps that can compromise forecasts and revenue streams, or create other risks.
“Our investors collectively share our vision for a new mobile, data-driven approach to managing sales rep performance that will fundamentally change not only the way that sales reps are equipped for value-added conversations, but how sales management is conducted in 2015 and beyond,” said Duncan Lennox, Qstream CEO and co-founder.
Harvard image via Shutterstock
