Relay Network just raised $30M. Here’s what its 2020 looks like

Radnor-based customer engagement company Relay Network announced this week it had raised $30 million in growth capital investment from Center City’s LLR Partners.

The company created a software to help businesses get through to customers outside of traditional email marketing: The mobile engagement program essentially enables businesses to deliver communications through individual feeds that guide customers to take specific actions, like scheduling a service.

Relay has more than 30 million active customer feeds and has relationships with companies such as Comcast, Independence Blue Cross and Citizens Bank, it said. (Ever get a text message from IBX with updates about changes to your policy? That’s Relay’s doing.)

The company previously raised $28.7 million in total, with the most recent raise of $12 million in 2016. This is the first raise that’s provided liquidity to the company’s earliest investors, Relay CEO Matt Gillin said.

That means early investors — NewSpring Capital, First Round Capital and Actua — now get a profitable exit.

“It’s exciting because it is the largest single investment we have ever had,” Gillin said of the recent raise. “It indicates a very strong vote of confidence of where we are going, and provides us with a solid and proven financial partner for this next stage of growth.”

So, what’s the plan for the investment?

Gillin said the company aims to add about 30% more employees to the company’s current staff of about 50 in areas like sales, marketing, client success, and product and technology. The plan is also to enter some new markets and expand into one’s Relay’s already in, as well as further develop its platform and main vertices, Gillin said.

David Reuter, a partner at LLR Partners, said he’s known Gillin for two decades and is excited to be a part of the company’s next chapter.

“They’ve built an innovative solution to power personalized, proactive customer engagement and help enterprises improve outcomes, while writing a great growth story for Philadelphia,” Reuter said.

Looking toward 2020, Gillin said the company will add about a million users to its 30 million base per month and wants to double clients to about 100 clients across healthcare, financial services and home services.

“We have access to more capital than we’ve ever had in the history of the company, and we are poised for takeoff to the next level,” he said.