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HoneyBook, a customer relationship management platform for small businesses in the creative industries, today announced that it has raised a $ 28 million C series run by Citi Ventures. All of its existing investors, including Norwest Venture Partners, Aleph, Vintage Investment Partners and Hillsven Capital, have also returned. Citi is a strategic partner for HoneyBook and this will enable it to offer new financial products to freelancers, "said co-founder and CEO Oz Alon at TechCrunch.
This brings to $ 72 million the total amount raised by HoneyBook up to now. He uses these funds to develop his teams in San Francisco and Tel Aviv and create new features for his users, including small businesses, solo workers ("solopreneurs") and freelancers. Like other CRMs, HoneyBook helps them develop relationships with new prospects, manage projects, send invoices and accept payments, but with tools tailored to their business needs.
Alon told TechCrunch in an email that HoneyBook is focusing primarily on the millennial generation (he cited a survey that found that 49% of people under 40 planned to start their own business). HoneyBook currently has tens of thousands of customers and has logged $ 1 billion in sales with its software, as well as 75,000 members in Rising Tide, the company's online community for creative entrepreneurs.
Other management software platforms that compete to attract entrepreneurs and freelancers include Tave, Dubsado and 17hats. HoneyBook differentiates itself by allowing its users to accept payments online without integrating them into a third party service. Thanks to this, its users "perform more than 80% of their online transactions, significantly more than any other payment platform serving this audience," said Alon. This partnership with Citi will also enable the company to develop more unique services for its target customers, he added.
In a prepared statement, Omit Shinar, director of Citi Ventures in Israel and head of venture capital investments, said, "We are going through a period of profound change in the structures of society and business models. The fintech ecosystem is producing more revolutionary innovations to meet the needs of modern consumers, and we believe that as a pioneer in its field, HoneyBook can become a market leader in the United States. "
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