Yammer, the private social network, has nabbed $85 million, the company recently announced. This brings the company’s total investments to $142 million. At nearly a billion dollars, this latest round gives the company instant capital similar to what it might expect from an IPO, but without all the headaches.
Draper Fisher Jurvetson, led the round, with participation by new investors Meritech Capital Partners; Capricorn Investment Group LLC, the investment arm of Jeff Skoll; Khosla Ventures; and Crunchfund. Previous investors Charles River Ventures, Emergence Capital, Founders Fund, Social+Capital Partnership, and U.S. Venture Partners also participated, as did angel investors Bill Lee, Max Levchin, and NFL Hall of Famer Ronnie Lott. Randy Glein, managing director at DFJ Growth, will have an observer’s seat on Yammer’s board of directors.
Yammer provides a private social network so employees can quickly communicate and juggle work loads and projects, updating their activities throughout the day. Closed from public view, the service is only available to a network of people that have a company’s email address. The company’s service has a healthy 99 percent uptime.
More than 200,000 businesses use the service, including 7-Eleven, Red Robin, Ford, General Electric, Shell, and Penn State University, and 85 percent of the Fortune 500. Yammer has 4 million corporate users.
The company will use the new funding to launch a global marketing campaign, including front page ads in the Wall St. Journal and online advertising throughout the US and Europe. It will also use the new funding for hiring, strategic acquisitions, and a launch of native desktop clients for Windows and OS X.
“This significant influx of capital provides us with the resources to expand quickly and strategically, innovate rapidly and extend our market leadership,” said David Sacks, founder and CEO of Yammer.
The San Francisco company was founded in 2008. Business Insider said it spoke with sources that value the company at about $500 million.