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Sonian Inc., the lean, mean, boot-strapped email archiving software provider, has dipped deeply into the VC well, raising $4.1 million of a $6.6 million Series A round for a company that until now has not actually maintained a formal office.
Prism Ventureworks is one of two investors in the Dedham-based company, with partner Will Kohler taking a board seat. Kohler and Sonian founder and CTO Greg Arnette confirmed the amount of the funding but declined to name the second syndicated investor, saying that information will become available once the deal closes later this month.
“They’ve done a lot on a little, which is obviously a great thing to see,” Kohler said – but the company has a need to beef up support services and the ability to develop new features for its business channel partners in the multi-tiered sales model it has developed. “Really it was the appropriate time for them to go out and get institutional funding,” he said.
Sonian currently provides email archiving software-as-a-service, using cloud-based infrastructure to scale efficiently – but the firm hopes to add data management features, like analytics, deduplication and the ability to handle an expanded list of file types, Kohler said. Sonian’s website lists Virginia-based email hosting company Mailtrust among its OEM partners.
Some of the funds are planned to hire marketing and direct sales personnel, but the funding is not the gear-up for a huge direct sales push, Kohler said.
“It’s growing into a company. I wouldn’t say it’s a firehose of sales and marketing feet on the street. We’re going to grow appropriately,” he said.
Prism announced in May it had suspended efforts to raise a sixth fund, but the firm still has about three to five deals left in its $250 million fifth fund, closed in 2005, partner Woody Benson said at the time.
Kohler has led or co-led Prism’s investments in Conduit Labs, Six Degrees Games, the New Orleans Exchange, Sparkplay Media and ExpoTV, according to the firm’s website.
He is also involved in the firm’s investment in remote log-in application maker LogMeIn Inc. (Nasdaq: LOGM), which went public last week with a $122.7 million IPO. On July 1, its first day of trading, shares rose 25 percent from their initial offering price of $16, to $20.02. At yesterday’s close, they traded at $19.24.
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