SEATTLE—November 27, 2018—Since taking over as CEO of LiquidPlanner last year, Todd Humphrey has helped the 12-year-old project management company increase revenue and reach profitability. Now the Seattle startup is raising another round of funding to fuel growth.
LiquidPlanner just reeled in a $2 million round from existing investors. TVC Capital, which also invested in 2014 and 2016, led the round. Total funding to date is $17 million.
Humphrey took over in November of last year after Liz Pearce stepped down following a decade-long stint at the company (she’s now at Portland startup Streem). Humphrey has helped restructure the management team and refocus the business. LiquidPlanner has reduced spending by 24X and increased customer retention rates by 80 percent.
“Literally every metric is better across the business,” said Humphrey, who previously was an executive at League, a Toronto-based healthcare startup he co-founded in 2014.
Customers such as Daimler, Delta, Fanatics, and others use LiquidPlanner to manage projects. The software has features including predictive scheduling, contextual collaboration, integrated time tracking, and more. There are more than 24,000 users.
There are a flurry of other tech companies big and small that sell cloud-based tools to better manage work processes, including fellow Seattle-area company Smartsheet, which went public last year, Microsoft, and startup Viewpath. Others such as Google, Asana, Atlassian, Planview, and Workfront offer competing products.
But LiquidPlanner, co-founded by Charles Seybold and Jason Carlson in 2006—Seybold is chief product officer while Carlson left in 2016—has not only survived but is growing.
“The market is very sophisticated now and we plan to deliver something that absolutely delights on those high expectations,” Humphrey said.
The online project management software market is expected to reach $6.6 billion in 2026, according to a recent report from Transparency Market Research.
This article by Taylor Soper originally appeared on GeekWire. Taylor Soper is a GeekWire staff reporter who covers a wide variety of tech assignments, including emerging startups in Seattle and Portland, the sharing economy and the intersection of technology and sports. Follow him @taylor_soper and email taylor@geekwire.com.
