South Jersey analytics firm Agilence raises $6 million

In one of the latest-stage raises we’ve seen in the last few years, a South Jersey analytics firm called Agilence raised a $6 million Series D.
The round was led by Santa Monica, Calif.-based Arrowroot Capital, with participation from San Francisco-based Aster Capital, according to Agilence spokesman Adam Creamer.

The company, which sells analytics software for brick-and-mortar stores like Rite Aid and Five Below, has raised just over $19 million since 2007, including a $7.3 million Series B in 2008, just when the recession began.
The titles are a little misleading, said CEO Russ Hawkins, a veteran entrepreneur who was installed by Montgomery County investors NextStage Capital at the end of 2007. Agilence raised a $500,000 Series A in 2007 from NextStage, but that was a very early stage raise, which some might think of as a seed stage.
Back then, the company was selling a hardware and software mix that provided analytics for retailers. It’s since pivoted to get out of the hardware business — the company’s $5.3 million Series C went toward the development of a new software product. (Agilence still has customers that use the hardware product, Hawkins said, but they’re not onboarding new ones.)
This recent raise will go toward sales and marketing. Agilence currently employs 55 and plans to hire 10 more in 2016, Hawkins said.
Hawkins, 60, of a small town in Northern New Jersey called Gladstone, previously ran a venture-backed company out of King of Prussia called Silver Storm that sold to QLogic in 2006 for an undisclosed amount.
If Hawkins lives in North Jersey, why’s the company in Mt. Laurel? (We often find that CEOs locate their companies in their own backyards.) Well, the company had originally been headquartered in Mt. Laurel, then moved to Camden but when it outgrew that space, Hawkins took the team back to Mt. Laurel because it was the most centrally-located for all the company’s employees. He said he hasn’t had much trouble attracting talent to South Jersey.