The Front executive team. Image: Front
Front will use its latest funds to drive its EMEA expansion in Dublin and Paris. The company revealed plans to establish an Irish base last year.
US software company Front plans to grow its presence in Europe after closing a $65m Series D funding round.
The round was led by Salesforce Ventures and Battery Ventures. The CEO of SaaS company PagerDuty also participated, along with existing investors Sequoia Capital, Threshold Ventures and Uncork Capital.
The Series D round values Front at $1.7bn, giving the start-up unicorn status. The company’s CEO and co-founder, Mathilde Collin, also joins a very small list of women who have both founded and led a SaaS unicorn.
Front’s total funding to date comes in at more than $200m.
CRM software company Front was set up in 2013. It serves around 8,000 clients in more than 100 countries and its users include Shopify, Airbnb, Hulu, Lyft and Mailchimp.
Last October, Front announced plans to establish an Irish base and create several new jobs. At the time, the start-up said it planned to build a team with a focus on sales, support, success and marketing, before opening an office in Dublin.
The start-up said today (28 June) that it will use its fresh funding to grow its operations in Dublin and Paris as part of its EMEA expansion. It plans to grow its EMEA headcount by more than 80pc over the next two to three years.
It also plans to accelerate investments in both product and go-to-market initiatives. It will increase investments in product development to empower support, operations and account management teams to build long-lasting relationships at scale.
For go-to-market, it will invest in new partnerships, geographies and gaining market share in industries such as professional services, financial services, logistics and B2B technology.
Collin said Front has taken a “contrarian approach” so far.
“We’re building technology that scales customer relationships without losing that human touch,” she said.
“This investment round, coming in the economic environment as it did, is a validation of that approach. Front has the potential to become the communications layer for meaningful relationships across the entire enterprise, and investors want to help us get there.”
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