Investors are going all in on Ally.
The Seattle startup just landed a $50 million Series C round led by Green Oaks Capital, Tiger Global, and Madrona Venture Group. Total funding to date is $76 million since the company’s launch in 2018 and two previous rounds raised in 2019.
Ally helps companies track and hit their goals, or Objectives and Key Results (OKR), a popular framework for running teams and businesses. The idea is to bring together data from across an organization and keep employees on the same page as they work toward milestones. Customers include brands such as Dropbox, Nike, Overstock.com and others.
Ally saw its revenue more than triple in 2020. The pandemic-driven shift to remote work has highlighted the need for Ally, said Vetri Vellore, the company’s CEO who previously spent 14 years at Microsoft.
“Ally has become the key platform for businesses to operate with agility and resilience,” said Vellore.
Ally’s software integrates with other collaboration tools including Slack, Microsoft Teams, Jira, Smartsheet, Asana, and more.
Vellore came up with the idea for Ally after an experience at his previous startup. In 2007, he co-founded Chronus, a company that built digital tools for employee development programs. He implemented OKRs but found it cumbersome to track progress with spreadsheets and other manual methods. So Vellore built his own tool to streamline the process, which is what eventually led him to start Ally.
“Vetri has taken the idea of OKRs and is building an intelligent business management system that unifies planning, people operations and projects,” said S. “Soma” Somasegar, managing director at Madrona. “We believe this is a massive opportunity.”
Somasegar noted that nearly $300 million has been invested in OKR startups over the last two years. Competitors include Gtmhub, WorkBoard, Perdoo, and others.
Ally plans to expand sales to Europe and roll out new product features with the fresh cash. The company has nearly 140 employees. Existing investors Accel, Addition Ventures, Founders’ Co-Op, and Vulcan Capital also participated in the Series C round.
Ally won Startup of the Year honors at last year’s GeekWire Awards.
