Portland-based Jama Software announced a $20 million venture round Monday, the latest in a string of large investments in Oregon tech businesses.
The money will fund new features for Jama’s product-planning software and finance an ambitious hiring plan for a company that moved to big new downtown headquarters late last year.
Jama plans to expand by 50 people this year, increasing its workforce by more than a third and adding to all elements of its work force — engineering, marketing, sales and customer service.
“We are emerging out of the initial startup phase and moving into a growth phase,” said chief executive Eric Winquist.
Jama is concentrating on expanding its market and products while adding experienced executives, he said. The company recently put its first employee in Europe and hired a chief financial officer and engineering vice president last year.
“What we’re focused on now is scaling,” Winquist said.
Monday’s round includes prior Jama backers Trinity Ventures, Madrona Venture Group and the Oregon Angel Fund along with a new investor, Updata Partners. Based in Washington, D.C., Updata specializes in investments outside the Bay Area.
Updata previously invested in Portland-based Viewpoint construction Software and, in January, bought a majority stake in Portland-based Ruby Receptionists for $38.8 million.
“Jama has a modern product that solves the real problems companies have delivering innovation. We are thrilled to partner with them on the next phase of their growth,” said Updata parnter Jon Seeber, who joins Jama’s board as part of Monday’s deal.
Prviately held Jama has now raised $33 million altogether; it last reported financial results in 2013, when it announced $13 million in revenue.Monday’s funding is the latest in a string of large investments in young Portland tech companies.Monday’s funding is the latest in a string of large investments in young Portland tech companies.
Portland mobile marketing startup Urban Airship completed a $21 million investment round last month, for example, and video encoding specialist Elemental Technologies announced $14.5 million in new backing in December.
Those aren’t large amounts by Silicon Valley standards, but they’re a marked uptick for Oregon companies. The state hasn’t built a really large tech business in decades, though several – including Jama – now have a possibility of breaking that streak.
Oregon venture funding, depressed since the dot-com era, hit its highest point in years in 2014 – by some measures, last year’s venture haul was the highest since 2001. And Oregon tech employment is also at its highest point in years.
Jama’s software helps businesses develop complex products, using social-media style tools to coordinate work across departments by encouraging collaboration and keeping everyone involved updated about how design changes affect their own work.
Clients include SpaceX, NASA, TiVo, Texas Instruments and Major League Baseball.
Jama is known in the Portland tech scene for being unusually patient about accepting venture capital. Long among the city’s best-regarded tech companies, Jama was founded in 2007 but didn’t take a formal venture investment until 2013, when it announced a $13 million round.
Startups often prefer to take venture backing earlier, to accelerate their growth. But Jama was able to expand without that money by identifying a defined market niche and generating a revenue stream through prominent clients.
Its path has become a model for other Portland startups, including marketing technologist Opal Labs and legal software company Zapproved, which each announced big venture rounds in recent months after devoting years developing their product to suit a specific market niche.
Portland’s tech scene has matured enormously in the eight years since he founded Jama, Winquist said Monday. While technical skills and executive experience are still in short supply, he said other conditions have improved considerably.
Investment capital is now readily available to promising Oregon businesses at a very early stage, he said, and Portland tech companies such as Elemental and Puppet Labs have demonstrated there’s a pathway to success for the city’s entrepreneurs.
“It’s gone through a major transformation,” Winquist said. “When we started the company back in ’07 there were a handful of companies getting off the ground. There wasn’t a lot of visibility.”
Update: This article has been updated with comment from Eric Winquist.
— Mike Rogoway
503-294-7699
@rogoway
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