Carmel tech firm Lumavate raises $3M in growth capital

Carmel-based software-as-a-service firm Lumavate on Wednesday announced that it has raised more than $3 million in growth capital in its fifth funding round in four years.

The latest round included contributions from BioCrossroads, Elevate Ventures, Collina Ventures, and 4G Ventures. 

The firm has raised $10 million in growth capital since being founded in mid-2015, company officials said.

Lumavate raised a seed round of $750,000 when it was founded and another $1 million in a follow-on round. It landed $2 million in venture capital in 2017 and raised another $2.5 million in growth capital in March 2018.

This most recent funding will help Lumavate continue to expand its product offering and grow its product, sales, and marketing teams, company officials said. The company has 30 employees, and company officials said the firm is in hiring mode.

The company signed an incentive agreement with the Indiana Economic Development Corp. in 2016 that will allow it to claim $1.3 million in tax credits if it boosts employment to 102 by the end of next year.

In January 2018, Lumavate announced that local tech veteran Mark Hill was named CEO and Bill Godfrey was appointed vice president of business development. Godfrey and Hill said their full-time involvement was needed to take the then-20-employee firm to the next level.

Godfrey, 50, 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, 62, 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 2017.

Godfrey and several former Aprimo executives 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 now touts itself as the leading platform for delivering progressive web apps. Progressive web apps provide an installable, app-like experience on desktop and mobile devices that are built and delivered directly via the web. PWAs are known for being fast and reliable, and for working in any web browser.

In addition to the capital raise, Lumavate also announced this week it is launching an upgraded version of its software that company officials said would add to the firm’s growth.

“Our platform accelerates delivery by making it possible for IT to have control over their cloud-based app architecture while empowering business users with the ability to build and modify apps themselves," Hill said in written comments. "The new features in this release continue to accelerate this process for our customers and help drive results for their business even faster.”