Angus Davis, founder and CEO of a fast-growing Providence technology company, said Thursday a $20-million venture-capital investment in his firm will allow Swipely to “accelerate growth” in the capital city by hiring more employees, attracting more customers and improving what it sells them. The company Davis founded in late 2009 employs more than 100 people and manages more than $2 billion in annual sales for merchants who use its system in more than 40 states. That’s up from $1 billion in sales it managed in November. Davis expects to have 200 employees by the end of 2015, he said. That’s a far cry from nearly 30 he employed at the start of last year.
Restaurants and bars are getting smarter about the way they deal with customers these days. Providence, Rhode Island-based Swipely makes a cloud-based payments system that lets restaurants and bars crunch data to find their best customers, detect most popular menu items, launch rewards programs, and rank food servers by sales and customer retention. Swipely announced Thursday it has taken a new $20 million round of funding. Pritzker Group Venture Capital led the investment and was joined by existing investors First Round Capital, Index Ventures and Shasta Ventures. Pritzker Group Venture Capital and Greylock Partners also have some skin in the game from earlier rounds. The new money brings Swipely’s funding total up to $40.5 million. The company says will use the new capital to sell its service to more hospitality retailers in more places and embark on an “aggressive” hiring spree. Swipely, which has around 100 employees, says it now processes more than $2 billion in annual sales through its platform.
