SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 2, 2017 /PRNewswire/ — Hustle, a one-to-one text messaging platform that scales and humanizes the way that organizations communicate with people, today announced it has closed a $8 Million Series A financing. The round was led by Social Capital with participation from existing investors including Canvas Ventures, new investors Omidyar Network and Twilio.org Impact Fund, as well as nine other world-class investment firms.

“Hustle’s Series A is an important milestone on our mission to strengthen organizations by helping them scale genuine human relationships,” said Roddy Lindsay, Hustle’s Co-founder and CEO. “We are proud to deepen our relationship with all of our existing investors and bring in an incredible roster of traditional, strategic, and impact-driven investors, all of whom are excited to partner with Hustle in building a category-defining communications platform that drives positive impact in the world.”

Founded in 2014 as a tool to help advocacy organizations conduct meaningful one-to-one texting conversations with their members, Hustle quickly saw success in the 2016 election cycle, where it helped more than 100 campaigns and political groups, including the Sanders and Clinton campaigns, scale and humanize their ability to communicate with millions of voters and volunteers. Since its founding, Hustle has helped clients manage more than 38 million one-to-one conversations with more than 25 million people across the United States, Canada, and Australia.

“Hustle embodies a new kind of company that personalizes the approach organizations take to more effectively reach and advance their goals,” said Chamath Palihapitiya, Founder and CEO at Social Capital, and Hustle board member. “We’re proud to continue our partnership with this talented team, and believe that their impact will scale dramatically as they enter new markets and create more personal relationships for employees, supporters, and customers.”

Since the election, new clients in the education, advocacy, and financial services industries have seen demonstrable ROI using Hustle’s platform to power personal member and customer communication, event organizing, and fundraising goals. Amherst College saw participation rates double when they used Hustle to solicit donations from young alumni compared to using email, social media, and voice calls alone.

“Most organizations are only scratching the surface when it comes to effectively reaching the people they serve,” said Erika Balbuena, Head of Strategic Initiatives at Twilio.org. “Hustle has created a unique human-centered approach that leverages the power of communications to educate, organize and fund high impact campaigns. We are thrilled to make our inaugural investment from the Twilio.org Impact Fund in Hustle.”

Hustle plans to use the investment capital to build out its API and integrations platform, expand its product offerings around fundraising and event campaigns, achieve ubiquity in the political and advocacy industry in advance of the 2018 U.S. elections, and grow its sales and marketing teams as it expands into new verticals.

“It is exciting to come across a technology that redefines the playbook on how organizations communicate with their customers and supporters,” said Paul Hsiao, General Partner at Canvas Ventures. “We are excited to support Hustle’s continued growth in the advocacy, education, and enterprise markets.”

About Hustle

Hustle is a one-to-one text messaging platform that scales and humanizes the way that organizations communicate with people. Since 2014, Hustle has helped hundreds of relationship-driven clients conduct more than 38 million personal texting conversations.

About Social Capital

Social Capital is an investment firm with a mission to advance humanity by solving the world’s hardest problems. The team invests in and starts breakthrough companies in healthcare, education, financial services, enterprise, consumer and frontier. Social Capital is stage agnostic, investing its capital and expertise across the company lifecycle, from promising early stage startups to transformational public companies.

About Canvas Ventures

Canvas is a respected early-stage venture capital firm based in Portola Valley, CA. The partners are known for notable investments in software & services companies. Prior to founding Canvas, the firm’s partners invested in MuleSoft, Lending Club, Houzz, Evernote, NexTag, Check, Doximity, Elance-oDesk, and more. They currently concentrate on the areas of artificial intelligence, “new enterprise” solutions, fintech, health IT, and marketplaces. The Canvas partnership was formed in August 2013. FutureAdvisor is a prior Canvas investment which was acquired by BlackRock in 2015. Current Canvas portfolio companies include: Eden, Everwise, Casetext, CrowdFlower, Fluxx, Folloze, HealthLoop, Hustle, Kinetica, Luminar, Platform9, Totango, Transfix, Vida Health, Viewics, and Zola. More at www.canvas.vc.

About Omidyar Network

Omidyar Network is a philanthropic investment firm that invests in entrepreneurs and their visionary ideas to create opportunities for people to improve their own lives, their communities, and the world around them.  

Hustle’s Series A Investors:

Canvas Ventures

Designer Fund

Foundation Capital

GSV Accelerator

Higher Ground Labs

Index Ventures

Kapor Capital

Matrix Partners

New Media Ventures

Omidyar Network

Social Capital

Twilio.org Impact Fund

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SOURCE Canvas Ventures