Bloomington software firm nabs $10 million investment

Bloomington-based FormAssembly, which provides digital forms to help companies collect and manage data, announced Wednesday it has received $10 million in its first fundraising round, and plans to expand from 70 to as many as 100 employees in the coming months.

The Series A funding came from just one investor: New York-based investment firm Level Equity. Series A rounds represent a firm’s first wave of venture funding.

“We went into this funding exercise for a few months and we talked to multiple parties and we had great interest in what we’re doing,” FormAssembly CEO and founder Cedric Savarese told IBJ.

“I think we’re lucky to have multiple options and we decided to move with Level and there’s no need to bring in any other party,” he said. “They’re a very large firm based out of New York and they just had the capacity to fill everything we need.”

This is the first time since 2006—the year FormAssembly launched—that the company will take outside money. The company says the investment comes in the midst of a wave of consumer demand for data regulation.

George McCulloch, a partner at Level Equity, will now join FormAssembly’s board of directors.

"We're excited to partner with FormAssembly, a company that has established itself as the leader in the Salesforce ecosystem, and is ideally placed to meet the growing demand for secure, compliant data collection," McCulloch said in a written statement.

FormAssembly has no plans to go back to the market for a Series B round anytime soon. Instead, Savarese said the Level investment gives the company what it needs to build the business and expand its ability to enable businesses to collect and process data securely and responsibly.

"We're in the midst of a massive shift in the way businesses, consumers, and regulators think about the collection, sharing, and use of personal data," Savarese said in a written statement. "We have a unique opportunity to combine our state-of-the-art data collection and workflow automation platform with tools and services designed to help our customers be good stewards of the data entrusted to them.”

FormAssembly did not release information about its revenues, sales or profitability. Savarese said the decision to seek funding was not driven by a need for money, but the investment was good for the company’s future.

 “We didn’t go to fundraise because we needed the cash. It was really a decision to work with a great financial partner that can help us accelerate the vision for the company and the product,” Savarese said.

FormAssembly’s employees work remotely, which Savarese said allows the company to attract top-tier talent from all around the globe while giving them flexibility.

Currently FormAssembly has 70 employees, with about 10 based in Indiana, and the company plans to grow to 100 employees in the next few months.

FormAssembly is listed on Inc. 5000’s 2018 list of Fastest Growing Private Companies in America, with $5.3 million in revenue for the prior year. Its customers include several Fortune 500 firms including Amazon, Aetna and Volvo.