San Diego-based ClickUp has raised $400 million in Series C funding — the single-largest funding round to date in the “workplace productivity” niche of the software-as-a-service (SaaS) market.
The round gives ClickUp a $4 billion valuation – and an increasingly higher profile among San Diego’s tech unicorns.
The Series C funding was co-led by Andreessen Horowitz and Tiger Global, with participation from Lightspeed Venture Partners and Meritech Capital Partners.
The Series C follows a $35 million Series A in June 2020 and a $135 million Series B in December 2020.
ClickUp’s cloud-based project management platform offers all-in-one workplace collaboration software that gives users a competitive advantage — and saves them time.
“We believe software should make people more productive and efficient,” said Zeb Evans, CEO and founder of ClickUp.
Moved to SD in 2019
Launched in 2017 in the Silicon Valley, Evans relocated ClickUp’s headquarters to San Diego in 2019.
In the last 18 months, he’s steered the startup from a Series A with 50 employees to a $4 billion dollar juggernaut with more than 700 employees.
This week in the Rady Shell at San Diego’s Jacobs Park, ClickUp hosts its annual productivity conference – called LevelUp. The live Nov. 9 event features celebrity speakers, entertainment, real-time demos and two new ClickUp product announcements.
Evans said ClickUp’s secret sauce is constant innovation. “We will never stop improving every aspect of the ClickUp experience,” the CEO said.
“Years ago, as I was starting out as an entrepreneur, it was clear to me that the siloed approach to managing work was broken,” Evans wrote recently in ClickUp’s company blog. “We were wasting hours each day trying to stay aligned through so many tools. We knew that the tools we were using should have made us more productive and efficient, but they simply weren’t. Switching between single-purpose tools was slowing us down.”
ClickUp’s productivity platform “flexes to the way people want to work,” Evans said, replacing all individual workplace productivity tools within a single, unified platform that includes project management, document collaboration, spreadsheets, chat and goals.
3 Million+ Active Users
More than 90 percent of ClickUp’s 3 million-plus users are on three or more products within the platform, according to the company.
The booming business productivity software market is expected to grow 13 percent annually and reach more $100 billion by 2027, according to Grand View Research.
In the last year, ClickUp has tripled its revenue — and increased its user base from 200,000 to 800,000 teams worldwide.
The company says 40% of its client base is outside the U.S.
ClickUp’s A list U.S. customers include McDonalds, Booking.com, Papa Johns and Netflix.
Locally, the San Diego Padres use ClickUp’s productivity platform to organize, manage and track all team communications and goals, among other tasks.
The company plans to use Series C proceeds to increase the company’s footprint in Europe and Asia and hire additional employees – dubbed the ‘ClickUp crew.’
Evans said the Series C funding also will help ClickUp “improve the product, faster.”
“ClickUp’s unique offering in the market has fueled their rise as one of the fastest-growing SaaS startups in the world,” said David George, general partner at Silicon Valley VC firm Andreessen Horowitz. “Their strong growth, product adoption and customer retention reflect the tremendous value they’re providing to businesses looking to drive greater productivity and efficiency.”
George thinks “ClickUp is synonymous with the future of work. “We’re thrilled to partner with a company that has shown such a strong commitment to its users and product,” he said.
ClickUp’s meteoric rise has the company on a constant hunt for talent.
“We plan to continue aggressively hiring to keep ahead of the demand for ClickUp,” Evans said. “Overall, we expect to hire at least 1,000 new ClickUp Crew members over the next three years.”
Evans said this week that taking ClickUp public is an increasingly likely option for the not-yet 5-year-old company. “Our sole purpose has always been to make the world more productive, and I believe that going public would help us to accelerate that vision and create a sustainable company that delivers long-term value to our customers.”
ClickUp
Founded: 2017
CEO: Zeb Evans
User Base: 800 teams worldwide
Employees: 700+
Headquarters: San Diego
Website: www.clickup.com
Notable: ClickUp ‘spaces’ are completely customizable, allowing every type of office team to be able to work together.
Contact: (888) 625-4258
