Local software startup lands $10M in seed funding, moves HQ to California

Edify Labs Inc., a contact-center software firm founded in Carmel a year ago by local tech entrepreneurs Cameron Weeks and Bracken Fields, announced Tuesday that it has raised $10 million in seed funding in one of the largest funding rounds of its type this year.

The company also moved its headquarters to its office in Santa Monica, California, in mid-September but said it plans to grow operations in the Indianapolis area.

Edify said the $10 million infusion marks the fourth-largest software seed round raised in the United States this year and is among the top 10 globally.

“This investment underscores that Edify has developed an industry-altering platform and will enable us to continue to augment our team with the most forward-thinking leaders in machine learning, cloud computing, real-time communication, and customer experience to finally give employees and customers the technology they need and deserve,” Weeks said in written comments.

Leading the round was First Round Capital, a venture capital firm whose partners have worked with emerging brands including Uber, Roblox, and Warby Parker.

Edify will work with First Round Capital partner Bill Trenchard, who led LiveOps and founded its predecessor, CallCast, both pioneering companies in the cloud-based call center industry.

Other investors in the round include Anorak Ventures, Pathbreaker Ventures, Morado Venture Partners, Bling Capital, Bonfire Ventures, SeaLane Ventures and Liquid 2 Ventures.

Edify said it plans to use the funding to build its market presence and expand its sales, marketing, development, and customer service teams.

Weeks and Fields founded Weeks Communications, a cloud-based telecommunications firm, when they were at Purdue University in 2007. The company later began doing business under the name Fathom Voice. It was a finalist in the 2013 Mira Awards for emerging technology company of the year.

The company changed its name to Sharpen Inc. in 2016 to reflect its evolution from selling private business exchange, or PBX, systems to selling multifaceted contact-center-management software based in the cloud. They left Sharpen last year after a difference of opinion about the direction of the company.

The pair started Edify Labs in October 2018 with Weeks as CEO and Fields as chief technology officer. They opened a Santa Monica office in May and rolled out the company’s business communications as a service, or BCaaS, platform, called Huddle, in June.

Edify is planning to lease new space in the Indianapolis area and has a jobs announcement in the works, a company representative said. The company declined to say how many employees it has overall and at each office.

“Building a workforce in Indiana is important to Cameron and Edify,” a company spokeswoman said in an email to IBJ. “Cameron has a goal to help build a bridge from SF venture funds to Indiana startups. This is something he has been working on for years and realized being in that community was the best way to build the bridge.”