{"id":3727,"date":"2017-02-24T19:20:39","date_gmt":"2017-02-24T19:20:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rsoftsolution.com\/blog\/communication-platform-layer-raises-15m-and-acquires-interactive-messaging-startup-cola.html"},"modified":"2017-02-24T19:20:39","modified_gmt":"2017-02-24T19:20:39","slug":"communication-platform-layer-raises-15m-and-acquires-interactive-messaging-startup-cola","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rbsitsoftwaresolution.in\/blog\/communication-platform-layer-raises-15m-and-acquires-interactive-messaging-startup-cola.html","title":{"rendered":"Communication platform Layer raises $15M and acquires interactive messaging startup Cola"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

Layer<\/a>, the messaging platform that won TechCrunch\u2019s Startup Battlefield back in 2013<\/a>, is making two big announcement today: It\u2019s raised $15 million in Series B funding, and it\u2019s acquiring another startup, Cola<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Layer makes it easy for businesses to add messaging capabilities to their iOS, Android and web products \u2014 customers include Trunk Club, Staples and Udacity. In fact, the company\u00a0recently partnered with Microsoft<\/a>\u00a0to provide messaging in the official app at the World Economic Forum in Davos, with capabilities for instant translation.<\/p>\n

Cola, meanwhile, launched\u00a0a text messaging app<\/a> last year with interactive capabilities like calendar- and location-sharing, polling and shared to-do lists. (You can see examples in the screenshot below.) Layer CEO Ron Palmeri told me that Cola\u2019s technology was a good fit for the Layer platform, since Cola\u2019s \u201cBubbles\u201d could\u00a0help streamline a customer\u2019s interactions with a business.<\/p>\n

\"Cola<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIf\u00a0you have\u00a0to file an insurance claim, or start\u00a0a mortgage process, these things require many, many steps and takes days or weeks,\u201d Palmeri said \u2014 so imagine staying connected throughout all of that with messaging and Cola Bubbles that update to tell you where you are in the process.<\/p>\n

So Layer is acquiring Cola to integrate those capabilities into its broader\u00a0platform \u2014 the Cola technical team, led by CTO Jeremy Wyld, will be working at Layer to build these integrations. (The rest of Cola, including\u00a0CEO David Temkin, won\u2019t be joining.) Ultimately, Palmeri said he wants to bring Cola functionality \u201cacross web and mobile, tying into things like email and SMS channels.\u201d<\/p>\n

The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Cola had raised $1.3 million in seed funding from investors including Brad Garlinghouse, Steve Case, Naval Ravikant and Tribeca Angels.<\/p>\n

And while the team will no longer focus on developing the Cola app, Palmeri said\u00a0there are no plans to shut the app\u00a0down.<\/p>\n

As for Layer\u2019s new funding, it was led by Greycroft Partners, with participation from Microsoft Ventures, Salesforce Ventures and others. Palmeri said Layer will be focused building more integrations, continuing to improve its open source user interface frameworks and developing technology in areas like artificial intelligence and machine learning.<\/p>\n

The startup has now raised a total of $23 million.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Article source: http:\/\/feedproxy.google.com\/~r\/techcrunchIt\/~3\/BAvOGwqVl7M\/<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Layer, the messaging platform that won TechCrunch\u2019s Startup Battlefield back in 2013, is making two big announcement today: It\u2019s raised $15 million in Series B funding, and it\u2019s acquiring another <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[19],"tags":[25],"class_list":["post-3727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-enterprise-software","tag-enterprise"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t