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January 28, 2014 05:40 pm GMT

Enterprise Messaging App Cotap Nabs $10M To Make Every Worker A Knowledge Worker

Screen Shot 2014-01-28 at 12.39.36Cotap, a messaging startup co-founded by two ex-Yammer executives, came out of stealth last year with a very singular aim: using the boom in smartphone usage to break down communication barriers in businesses between “knowledge workers” chained to computers and employees who are offline and out in the wild, directly interfacing with customers. Some three months after launching its first app, on iOS, Coptap is today announcing a new $10 million round of funding to build out that vision further, extending the app to Android and desktop, and hiring talent to build more features into the product, including its first tier of paid services. As of today, Cotap has already signed up employees at 6,000 businesses to use its free app. The Series B investment, which comes on top of a $5.5 million round last year, was led by Emergence Capital, with participation from Charles River Ventures. Both VCs were early investors in Yammer. Cotap’s debut and growth are part of a bigger consumerization trend among enterprise software developers: taking cues from the apps we use on our smartphones, tablets, and home computers, enterprises are moving away from dry and cumbersome legacy products. Workers want apps that are easier to use and more engaging, and on the IT side, the company wants services that are easier to implement and manage. That’s given rise to a lot of startups that are trying to tap into this trend to make basic apps for already-connected employees easier to use. (Incidentally, one of the startups in that space, Tomfoolery, appears to be getting acquired by Yahoo.) Cotap, however, takes this concept and extends it to another level: connecting employees that are effectively offline. Jim Patterson, the co-founder and CEO, believes that smartphones are a great democratizing force. Whereas a shop assistant or barista may not have been connected on a company network in the past, a handset — equipped with the Cotap app — could suddenly change that. “For the first time, enterprise software will be something usable by all employees. If you work for a large grocery store or coffee chain in customer service, you’ve typically been excluded from company conversation,” Patterson says. “Your closest connection to company conversations happens in the break room, or on a message board.” That goes two ways, too: those who work at cash registers typically come into the closest contact with customers, and yet there is no

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