Irish start-up Swrve raises $10 million in funding round

Dublin-based Swrve, a mobile and social marketing company established by the founders of gaming firm Havok, is expected to create at least 15 jobs locally after securing $10 million (€7.7 million) in a funding round.

The firm, which currently employs 30 people in Ireland, said it intends to use the capital to enable it to push further into new markets and to hire additional staff in sale, marketing and engineering.

Swrve was established in 2010 by Havok co-founders Hugh Reynolds and Steve Collins. Havok, a company that produces tools for creating realistic effects in games, was bought by Intel in 2007 for €80 million. Mr Reynolds and Mr Collins subsequently went on to create Kore Virtual Machines, which was then acquired by Havok in 2010.

Their latest company Swrve provides tools for software designers to test and adjust their apps by monitoring users.

“We allow developers to communicate directly with their users through the apps that they have developed. We give them tools so that they know what their users are doing and to update the app in real-time as people are using it.” Mr Collins told the Irish Times.

Swrve said it had achieved a 300 per cent growth in its customer base in the 12 months to the end of September. It now processes more than 3 billion events a day and said that over 100 brands have signed on to use its platform in the last 18 months.

The company previously secured $6.25 million in a funding round led by Atlantic Bridge and Intel Capital in 2012. Both companies participated in the latest round, which was led by Acero Capital.

Mr Collins said the funds would be used to help the company promote its platform and to accelerate its expansion plans.

“We’ve built a very solid product and now we have to widen our reach and tell the Swrve story to a wider audience,” said Mr Collins.

“Mobile marketing automation is a new market entirely and it is revolutionising the way that brands and companies interact with their customers. What we’re hoping to do is to define this market,” he added.

Acero's general partner Rami Elkhatib is to join Swrve's board. Other recent appointments to the board include former Skype executive Christopher S Dean, who was appointed chief executive fo the company in June.