New York-based Piano, a B2B software company focusing on media companies, raised a $22 million Series B round that will allow it to scale its product, look into acquiring other companies and grow its 30-person Philly office.
With backing from Washington D.C.-based Updata Partners, the company will bring its Philly headcount up to 55 by the end of the year, relocating the local team to a 10,000-square-foot office inside Old City icon The Bourse this summer, CEO Trevor Kaufman said.
“We’ll be adding to our product functionality, and that includes product management and our services group, client success and strategic consulting,” Kauffman said.
The platform that Piano sells to media bigwigs like Condé Nast, Time, Inc., CNBC and Brazil’s Grupo Globo is an end-to-end suite of software products that help “convert” users on media websites. Amid an industry-wide drop in advertising revenue and an increased dependence on paying subscribers supporting the work of media companies, Kaufman said Piano has experienced increased interest in its product.
“We’re also seeing more demand outside of the U.S., with Latin America and Europe becoming big markets for us,” said the CEO, who lives in Bryn Mawr.
In the pitch rooms, Piano’s offering has been successful — according to Kaufman — by offering clients the ability to bypass the “buy vs. build” decision when it come monetization platforms. Through its drag-and-drop interface, clients can enable clients to assemble a group of specific functions according to the journey they seek to create for clients.
So why did New York-based Piano, a media tech company, choose Philly as a place for its largest hub? Don’t look for any sentimental reasons behind the decision, Kaufman said.
“We picked Philly on merit,” the CEO said. “We looked at every major city on the East Coast and it became the obvious choice. There are great universities, quality of living is high and cost is low.”
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