New Office, Amazing Staff and VC Funding . . .
Phone2Action is Poised to Take Digital Advocacy to the Next Level
By Phone2Action Co-Founder and CEO Jeb Ory
When we started, digital advocacy was in its infancy. Smartphones were still considered new, and advocacy platforms weren’t designed to work on mobile. Elected officials were still figuring out Twitter. In this climate, we created Phone2Action, the first comprehensive advocacy and communications platform designed to meet people where they are — on their smartphones, tablets, and desktops (even Blackberries). Much has changed now: more than 81 percent of American adults use smartphones. One hundred percent of the Senate and House use Twitter and Facebook. And Phone2Action is now the leading advocacy and communications platform, with partners leading tens of thousands of campaigns engaging millions of advocates every year.
Our staff has more than doubled over the past year, and we are thrilled to have inducted our first class of Civic Tech Fellows into positions at the company. Five weeks ago, we relocated to new headquarters in Arlington, Virginia. Just recently, we announced the move at a press conference with VA Governor Terry McAuliffe, VA Secretary of Commerce & Trade Maurice Jones and Arlington County Board Chair Libby Garvey. More than 200 of our friends, partners and colleagues joined us in settling into our new digs and kicking off summer with the Governor, good food, great friends and GoGo Gadjet, the dopest live band on the East Coast.
And if that wasn’t enough, Phone2Action just closed on $4.6M in venture capital funding to help fuel our growth. This is an incredibly exciting opportunity for the company to expand, with new products, new services, and to extend our work into new markets. Our company exists to power movements across the world, and the additional growth opportunities afforded by the capital will help us extend our reach. In 2015 and 2016, our partners led campaigns across four continents, 10 countries, and all 50 states. We are proud and honored to have supported them.
We partnered on this funding round with Osage Venture Partners, a
Philadelphia-based venture capital firm that focuses on early-stage
software businesses; joining the round were Dundee Venture Capital,
who led our Seed round, Michael Torres’ ACM Acquisitions, and Foley
Ventures. We are grateful for our investors’ support and are extremely excited about working with them as we continue to build
Phone2Action.
The funding will allow us to provide greater service to our partners,
to innovate within social media channels — a huge area of growth for
advocacy engagement — and create tools to help advocates
engage with decision-makers in new, effective ways so they can have a
voice in shaping policies that govern our world.
We are thrilled about what is ahead and look forward to the next phase
of the company. Stay tuned, there’s more to come.
-Jeb
