Melbourne startup Freckle raises $6.1m to take on US data giants
The data enrichment startup has raised a seed round from Google's AI fund and Silicon Valley investors.
Ideas for successful startups often emerge while building something completely different, and Freckle is the latest example.
Melbourne founder Nathan Merzvinskis was developing an AI sales tool when he stumbled on a more pressing problem, leading to a USD 4 million ($6.15 million) seed round backed by Google’s artificial intelligence investment fund Gradient.
The round also included prominent San Francisco venture capital firm 1984 Ventures, CoVentures, Liquid2 Ventures — the fund backed by NFL legend Joe Montana — and Mintaka. Freckle secured the largely overseas funding after an Australian venture capital firm withdrew a term sheet due to a perceived conflict of interest with an existing portfolio company.
The data enrichment startup has grown to 2,650 users in just 10 months and plans to use the funding to expand its four-person team to six while building deeper CRM integrations.
