Carmel-based tech firm Lumavate raises $2.5 million in seed funding

Lumavate LLC, the software-as-a-service firm founded in mid-2015, announced Tuesday it has raised $2.5 million in seed funding. 

The funding will allow Lumavate to grow its product, sales and marketing teams, and further develop its products to meet the needs of numerous industries, officials for the Carmel-based company said.

The funding round included participation from locally based investors Allos Ventures, Collina Ventures, Elevate Ventures, 4G Ventures and Jupiter Peak, as well as former Interactive Intelligence CEO Don Brown.

The Lumavate platform capitalizes on the transition from mobile apps to progressive web apps—a major shift happening in mobile tech that is changing the way companies interact with consumers. Progressive web apps were first introduced by Google in 2015.

“Lumavate is on the forefront of what’s happening in mobile tech and is well positioned to capitalize on the transition from native mobile apps to PWAs,” Jupiter Peak Managing Partner Mike Simmons said in a written statement. “Lumavate’s impressive platform, veteran team and growing roster of enterprise clients—including a Fortune 100 company—are why I’m excited to participate in this round of funding.”

The company announced in January, that local tech veteran Mark Hill was becoming Lumavate’s CEO and Bill Godfrey was becoming vice president of business development. Godfrey and Hill said in January their full-time involvement is needed to take the 20-employee firm to the next level.

Godfrey, 49, is best known as the co-founder and former CEO of Aprimo Inc., an Indianapolis tech firm that was sold to Dayton, Ohio-based Teradata Corp. for $525 million in 2010. Godfrey co-founded Lumavate and serves on the board.

Hill, 61, co-founded financial software firm Baker Hill in Carmel in 1983 and sold it to Experian PLC for an estimated $75 million in 2005. He was an original investor in Lumavate and joined the firm’s board of managers in August.

Since selling Baker Hill, Hill had been busy running his local private tech investment firm, Collina Ventures, and serving on numerous corporate boards and trade group boards.

Godfrey and several former Aprimo execs started Lumavate as a subscription-based software-as-a-service firm that focused on helping manufacturing customers create interactive solutions for their end-users.

Lumavate got a big boost in early 2017 when it raised $2 million in a venture capital round that was led by Brown.

Lumavate signed an incentives agreement with the state in 2016 to create up to 93 high-wage jobs by the end of 2020. The company had nine employees at the time. The Indiana Economic Development Corp. offered the firm up to $1.3 million conditional tax credits if it could meet those hiring goals.