Local care-management software firm lands $1M in seed funding

Carmel-based Tendly LLC, a 3-year-old software platform for senior care and child care providers, has raised $1 million in seed funding from a bevy of local entrepreneurs and tech investors, the firm announced Tuesday.

The company, which does business as Tend.ly, said it planned to use the funds to fuel product development and hiring. The firm said it has an “aggressive growth strategy for 2018 and 2019.”

The funding round included investments from Mike Simmons, founder of T2 Systems; Scott McCorkle, former CEO of Salesforce Marketing Cloud; Eric Tobias, partner in High Alpha; Michael Browning, founder and chairman of Browning Investments; and Indianapolis-based Elevate Ventures.

Caitlin Coffman, a former application development manager for T2 Systems and chief financial officer for the Indiana Department of Homeland Security, founded Tend.ly in 2015 as a communications platform that helps care providers share meaningful moments with family members.

Today, some of the country’s largest child care providers use the firm’s management platform for communication with parents and employees and to make payments and reimbursements.

Company founders bootstrapped the business to get it off the ground and operated with a lean staff. The firm expects to have nine employees after a round of hiring is completed in a few weeks.

"We’re thrilled with our early progress and are eager to continue to expand our product roadmap and sales teams to accelerate our vision,” Coffman said in written comments.

Coffman’s husband, Matt Coffman, joined the firm as chief operating officer in February after stints at High Alpha, Salesforce and ExactTarget as a product developer and six years as chief technology officer at iGoDigital.

The firm also added Byron Hardie as chief marketing officer in January. Hardie formerly was chief of inbound marketing at Angie’s List, where he overhauled the company’s search engine optimization efforts.