Ally.io, a software start-up with a focus on the OKR (objectives and key results), raised $50 million in Series C round on February 17, 2020. The funding round was led by Greenoaks Capital. The existing investors of Ally.io – Tiger Global, Madrona Group, Accel, Addition Ventures, Founders’ Co-Op, and Vulcan Capital – also participated in the round. The start-up had raised an $8 million Series A in August, 2019 and a $15 million Series B in October of the same year. The Series C is more than its A and B rounds put together and doubled.
A standout 2020 for Ally.io
This Chennai and Seattle-based SaaS start-up was founded in 2018, by a serial entrepreneur, Vetri Vellore. With a technology development centre in Chennai, Ally.io has been investors’ favourite in the OKR segment. The company had started the fundraising process in January 2020. Within two weeks of starting the process, the company was able to seal the deal with strong interest from both existing investors and the new investors.
The start-up, had a standout year in 2020. In December 2020, the company reported more than 3x revenue increase year- over-year and added over 500 new customers including Dropbox, Arc’teryx, Overstock and BambooHR. It also managed to add few features to its cap and is being recognised as a ‘new force’ in the business execution space.
The company was named Geekwire’s Start-up of the Year (2020) and became a G2 Crowd Leader in the OKR space. In just over three years of stint, the start-up has an incredible client portfolio. Ally.io expanded its global team to over 130 people to support its rapid growth and claims it has over 800 customers, including the likes of Nike, Slack, Dropbox, Urban Company and TripAdvisor.
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Given Ally.io’s growth numbers over the past 3 years and the product offering like ease in using the software, deployment and innovative feature set, the investors pitched.
Growing market for OKR
It is important to note here that nearly $300 million has been invested into OKR start ups in the last two years. In 2020, Gtmhub, Perdoo, WorkBoard and Ally.io all grew in the triple digits. Some of the world’s most renowned business leaders have embraced the OKR framework to help their businesses adapt, grow and thrive.
The market for OKR software, and corporate goal setting software in general, is proving to be large, and lucrative as businesses in every sector recognise the need to be internally aligned and focused on goals and outcomes, rather than siloed and task-oriented, causing more organisations to adopt OKRs.
The investors have been studying the space closely to tap opportunities. Given Ally.io’s growth numbers over the past 3 years and the product offering like ease in using the software, deployment and innovative feature set, the investors pitched.
Moving forward, the investors view the software demand rising tremendously in the future. Post Covid-19, businesses are looking for finding new ways to motivate and connect employees to the company’s goals. In such a case scenario, goal management software’s that aligns individual, team, and department goals to the company objectives will be an asset. The fresh round of funding will be used for Ally.io’s rapid global expansion, and it plans to add another 1,000 customers in 2021.
