Local board management software firm raises $8M in capital

Boardable, an Indianapolis technology firm that sells software for board management, has secured $8 million in a Series A round of funding.

The round, announced Dec. 23, was led by San Francisco-based Base 10 Partners with participation from Indianapolis-based High Alpha.

Boardable, founded in 2017 as Board Management Software Inc., has raised a total of $13.3 million in capital.

Boardable officials said the latest round of funding will allow the company to expand its team, pursue new markets and build new product capabilities for its software.

“Our partnership with Base10 will accelerate Boardable’s growth in nearly all aspects and allow us to continue solving critical problems for nonprofits,” Boardable CEO Jeb Banner said in written remarks.

Despite the pandemic, or perhaps because of it, Boardable had a big year.

In response to the pandemic, Boardable in May began offering a free 90-trial of its software and support to not-for-profits globally—a move that also helped fuel the company’s growth.

“The growth this year has been very strong, more than 130%,” Banner told IBJ. “We’ve more than doubled our customer count and seen growth not only in the U.S., but internationally.”

Boardable now has 15% of its customers in Australia and New Zealand with customer bases in Canada and the United Kingdom also growing quickly, Banner said.

The company, Banner said, has more than doubled its number of customers this year to more than 1,000, with more than 100 in central Indiana.

“Central Indiana remains our strongest beachhead,” he said.

Boardable’s customers include the YMCA, Salvation Army, Big Brothers Big Sisters of America and Girl Scouts of Indiana.

Boardable’s software is designed to help not-for-profits centralize communication between customers and their board members, improving meeting scheduling, holding virtual meetings and organizing meeting minutes for board members and other key stakeholders. Boardable also is expanding the use of its software to staff meetings.

Much of the most recently raised capital will be used to expand the staff of the company, which now has 27 full-time employees.

“We look to more than double our headcount between now and the end of next year,” Banner said. “We’ll be hiring at all levels—starting in January. That’s the biggest part of the [capital] spend. We’ll have about 60 employees by end of 2021.”

Boardable just hired four software engineers, but more will be added in 2021, Banner said. In addition, Boardable is hiring a number of executives and director-level positions, including chief operating officer, chief financial officer, director of user experience, director of design and director of talent.

The next biggest spend, Banner said, will be sales and marketing.

“We’re looking to become as ubiquitous as possible in the nonprofit world by the end of 2021,” Banner said.