Dec 13, 2011

By Angela Sormani Ifbyphone, a voice-based marketing automation platform, has secured a debt financing commitment of $2 million from industry-focused debt provider BlueCrest Capital Finance. In the past, Ifbyphone has received $18 million in funding from investors such as Illinois Innovation Accelerator Fund (I2A), Apex Venture Partners, Origin Ventures, Spring Mill Ventures, and River Cities Capital Funds. Most recently, The National Association of REALTORS also invested in Ifbyphone through its strategic investment fund, Second Century Ventures. PRESS RELEASE Ifbyphone®, the leader in voice-based marketing automation, announced today its partnership with BlueCrest Capital Finance L.P., with a debt financing commitment of $2 million. The new round of financing from BlueCrest Capital Finance, L.P., will enable Ifbyphone to increase capacity and develop new capabilities by building the infrastructure needed to serve mid-market clients. Until now, Ifbyphone has largely concentrated on reaching small-to-medium-sized businesses with its voice-based marketing automation platform. However, the company’s rapid success has caused surging demand from mid-market level clients searching for a more effective way to automate voice-based lead generation. Sales at Ifbyphone have more than doubled within the past few years alone, driving the company to put aggressive hiring measures in place and continue its momentum as a forward-thinking tech leader. “The multi-billion dollar marketing automation space has failed to recognize that companies still use voice as a critical component of the sales and marketing process,” said Irv Shapiro, CEO of Ifbyphone. “Ifbyphone addresses this missing piece of marketing automation, which affects both small business and Fortune 500 companies. We see a unique opportunity to offer marketers an easy way to streamline their processes and drive more sales.” According to a 2011 eMarketer report, offline channels still represent 82% of total ad spend from today’s companies. A key difference between online and offline marketing is the ability to better track and quantify ROI through online channels. Voice-based marketing automation brings many of those metrics to these offline campaigns. Ifbyphone has defined the accelerating voice-based marketing automation space, which focuses on managing, measuring and automating voice interactions in one convenient platform. With disparate marketing automation and call tracking technologies on the market today, businesses have not had an adequate solution to address the increasing demands to simultaneously drive sales, reduce collection cycles, measure marketing effectiveness, and improve the customer experience. Beyond BlueCrest Capital Finance, L.P., Ifbyphone has received $18 million in funding from investors like the Illinois Innovation Accelerator Fund (I2A), Apex Venture Partners, Origin Ventures, Spring Mill Ventures, and River Cities Capital Funds. Most recently, The National Association of REALTORS® also invested in Ifbyphone through its strategic investment fund, Second Century Ventures. About BlueCrest BlueCrest Capital Finance L.P. concentrates on several industry sectors backed by professional and institutional investors including: communications, information technology, semiconductors, hardware & software, electronics, clean energy in addition to the entire health care and life science spectrum. The team pursues debt transactions in the $1-25 million range and has considerable lending capacity at its disposal. The team is entering its 14th Year and during its tenure has invested in over 500 transactions totaling approximately $1 Billion. About Ifbyphone® Ifbyphone is the leading voice-based marketing automation platform that manages, measures and automates voice interactions in the marketing process — including lead capture, lead nurturing, lead routing, and lead analysis. The Ifbyphone suite is a set of software-as-a-service applications implemented easily across an organization for better decision making and improving interactions across the customer lifecycle. Companies of all sizes and across all industries use the Ifbyphone platform, including health care, real estate, home services, and a variety of marketing applications. © 2015 Buyouts Insider / Argosy Group LLC