Buoyed by about $1 million in new funding, fledgling business software company EvoApp has leased more office space and is extending its technology into a new market.
The company has nearly tripled its footprint and now occupies an entire two-story building across the street from Brightleaf Square in downtown Durham. The 17,000-square-foot building is far more space than the 19-person company needs today, so it's capitalizing on Durham's growing reputation as a haven for startups by creating its own incubator.
EvoLabs will lease space on a short-term basis to young companies.
CEO Kip Frey said that the artsy ambience of the building, which previously was occupied by advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather, should appeal to startups that can't commit to a long-term lease. The 8,000-square-foot space will provide amenities such as a receptionist, a small kitchen and access to a conference room. Leases will be for as short as six months.
EvoApp expects to eventually occupy the entire building, said Frey, who joined the company in September after a stint as a venture capitalist at Intersouth Partners in Durham.
He also headed OpenSite Technologies, which was acquired for $542 million in 2000.
EvoApp's software enables businesses to analyze what's being said about them on Facebook, Twitter and the like, and mount a coordinated response when necessary. It also enables companies to analyze email and other digital communications with customers and measure the quality of the company's customer relationships.
The company doesn't disclose revenue. Frey said the company's customer list has roughly doubled since September to more than 40, including the Swiss energy conglomerate ABB and the nonprofit RTI International. Customers pay between $1,500 and $15,000 a month for the software.
The company also is extending its technology to try and capture a share of the growing appetite for "Big Data," or the analysis of humongous quantities of business data. EvoApp's Web-based analytics engine will enable companies to develop Big Data software that would take advantage of the computing power available over the cloud. EvoApp recently filed a patent for the technology and plans to begin licensing it in a few months.
"What these guys have come up with, we believe, is a completely novel way to make huge-scale analytics available to anyone without having to buy massive amounts of computing power," Frey said.
EvoApp expects to close on at least $1 million in funding from individual investors next week, which would push its total funding so far to roughly $3 million. In late spring Frey expects to seek the first round of money - between $6 million and $8 million - from venture capitalists.
The latest funding will enable EvoApp to add a handful of employees, with hiring ramping up after it lands venture capital financing.
The company's past investors include a number of people who are prominent in the technology arena, including Timothy Buckley, former chief operating officer at Red Hat, and Joe DeSimone, the renowned scientist and founder of several companies, including Liquidia Technologies. Their support, plus the recruitment of Frey, have thrust EvoApp into the spotlight.
The company was founded in 2009 by Joe Davy and Alexey Melnichenko, then-recent alumni of the N.C. School of Science and Mathematics in Durham. They're 22 today.
Steve Nelson, a venture capitalist at Wakefield Group who has invested his own money in EvoApp, said he also is participated in the latest funding.
"Kip has done a fantastic job," he said. "There is a certain level of both enthusiasm and calmness that comes in knowing Kip is your guy because he's a seasoned hand, a veteran."
