糖心视频

, which provides automated communications for deskless and frontline workers, has raised $29 million in a Series B round of funding led by .

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The company鈥檚 aim is to help mobile teams–particularly those who aren鈥檛 sitting behind a desk and are highly distributed–more easily communicate in real-time. Frontline workers are most typically found in the transportation, logistics, manufacturing and health care industries. In other words, Orion Labs鈥� mission is to be a Slack for deskless workers.

The Series B financing brings the company鈥檚 since its 2013 inception to $63 million, according to Crunchbase data. and existing investors , Argentum Capital Partners, and Mathers Associates also participated in the round. The company $18.3 million in September 2017.

In announcing the investment, Orion also said it has tapped as the company鈥檚 new CEO while co-founder (who happens to be a volunteer fireman) will serve as its executive chairman. Taylor was previously an executive of a number of other SaaS companies. Most recently, he served as president of , a secure collaboration platform for law firms and banks that was last July. He also led , a SaaS commodity trading and risk management platform that was in 2013.

Taylor points out that an astonishing number of people in these industries still rely on a decades-old technology: walkie-talkies or hand-held, portable, two-way radio transceivers. In fact, the global walkie-talkie market was recently at $9.77 billion in 2018.

Orion Labs is hoping to replace that technology for billions of deskless workers

Growth

According to Taylor, Orion saw its annual recurring revenue (ARR) grow by four times in 2019. He declined to be more specific, saying only that ARR is expected to be in the $5 million to $10 million range for 2020.

鈥淲e鈥檙e hoping to execute into the $20 million ARR range in the coming year (2021),鈥� Taylor told Crunchbase News.

Orion currently has just over 50 employees and Taylor expects that number to double as the company continues to scale in the coming year. It has just over 100 customers, the majority of which are enterprises. Its user count is in the 5,000 to 10,000 range.

鈥淟ast Friday, we onboarded an entire regional transportation system that added 10 percent to our user base in just a single day,鈥� Robbins told Crunchbase News. 鈥淪ome customers onboard thousands of people in a matter of 10 or 20 minutes. They might have been using radios or a legacy product and switch their entire operations over at once.鈥�

The company plans to use the new capital in part to beef up its sales and marketing teams.

鈥淭he business is quite ascendent right now,鈥� Taylor said. 鈥淭he current operating environment has only underscored the urgency for current prospects to begin deploying Orion. The coronavirus pandemic brings into focus globally this requirement for a whole new category of communication and collaboration.鈥�

Investor POV

, managing director of Dell Technologies Capital, said that Orion is a new standard for deskless and frontline workers in the same way Zoom and Slack are collaboration tools for knowledge workers at a desk.

鈥淥rion鈥檚 unique platform combines real-time communication, context and automation, enabling mobile teams to collaborate with each other, use powerful bots and workflows to become more effective, and remain heads-up in any environment,鈥� Jewell said in a written statement.

Last week, we reported that Dell Technologies Capital also led a $20 million Series B round for , which provides a real-time log management platform for on-premises and cloud infrastructure.

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