The messaging startup will continue to work on its Suggestion AI Technology, which has recently been adopted by major platforms, including The Meet Group, a portfolio of popular dating apps that includes Skout and Tagged. Holler said it plans to use the money from its latest funding round to invest in research, engineering, and development around conversational media.
The second biggest round of fundraising for the tech company to date was in December 2017, when Holler gleaned $12.6 million from a Series A round led by Hatzimemos/Libby, a New York-based venture studio. The messaging startup pulled in $1.2 million in a seed round in 2014 and then another $1.6 million two years later.
Prior to this round, Holler had raised a total of $15.4 million, according to Crunchbase. Gaingels, Interplay Ventures, Relevance Ventures, Towerview Ventures, and WorldQuant Ventures also invested in the business in its Series B round. The startup drew the attention of big-name investors, including CityRock Venture Partners and New General Market Partners LLC, which was founded by billionaire entrepreneur Richelieu Dennis. The $36 million round that closed this month was the biggest round for the business to date. It’s not just the revenue of Holler that’s grown over the past year: the fundraising pool of the company has also exponentially expanded. The revenue of the business has grown 226% during this time, Holler said. The messaging startup said it reached just 19 million a year ago - a sign of its growth. “It seemed bizarre that we haven’t seen much innovation in the text messaging experience since the first text message was sent in 1992,” said Montaque, positioning his company as the solution.Īccording to TechCrunch, Holler reaches 75 million users each month through all of the different companies it serves.
One of the main draws of Holler is its reliance on technology - namely artificial intelligence (AI) technology which provides users with contextually based recommendations while they are typing.įor example, Venmo users will recognize the experience of paying their roommate for “electric” and seeing a lightning bolt emoji or gif pop up on the screen. Staying at least partially on these lines, the startup has evolved into a hub of technology and creativity that provides messaging enhancements for all sorts of companies.
The company was initially launched in 2016 as a news and video content app by founder Travis Montaque, who now serves as CEO of the business. This is the most significant funding round to date for the self-branded “conversational media” as it hopes to be on the precipice of major growth. The New York-based startup partners with companies like Venmo, the payment app owned by PayPal, and The Meet Group to enhance the messaging experience. Holler has raised $36 million in a Series B round.