PlanGrid's Tracy Young has a new startup and $35 million in funding
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Photo: TigerEye
TigerEye, a stealthy San Francisco-based startup working on enterprise sales tools it plans to publicly launch next year, has raised $30 million in Series A funding led by Initialized Capital and Next47.
Why it matters: The company is the latest venture of Tracy Young, who previously co-founded and was CEO of construction software startup PlanGrid, which Autodesk acquired for about $875 million in 2018.
Between the lines: This makes Young (sadly) a rare female founder in sectors that are even more male-dominated than the broader tech industry — and one with an even rarer hefty startup exit under belt.
- "I know first hand that I can build a great business, and I can honestly say that I can be a great leader — and I happen to be a woman," says Young of the persistent underfunding of female entrepreneurs.
- "I am truly starting this company as an activist — if the world needs another company led by a woman, here I am," she adds. "My parents... were refugees of war — they didn't get to choose what they worked on, but I get to."
What she's saying: "The challenge we see with enterprise business solutions is that a lot of times people try to change the workflow but it's really hard to do that," Young tells Axios of the many companies she's seen over the years, especially as a partner at Y Combinator.
- "It’s always a mistake when we see a startup force a point of view on customers," she says, adding that lots of teams tackling this area also lack experience in building large sales teams.
Details: As part of TigerEye's latest funding round, Initialized Capital's Garry Tan is joining the company's board, even though he will shift to being a board partner at the firm when he becomes Y Combinator's CEO and President in the new year. Next47's Ching-Yu Hu is joining as an observer.
- The company also previously raised a $5 million seed round from SV Angel, Sterling Road and Y Combinator.
- TigerEye is graduating this week from YC's program (as former YC partners, she and c0-founder Ralph Gootee got "slightly better" investment terms, says Young). PlanGrid also participated in the program, back in 2012.
Editor's note: The story has been corrected to note that TigerEye raised a total of $35 million (not $40 million), and that the Series A was $30 million (not $35 million) and was led by Next47, in addition to Initialized Capital. The headline and story have both been corrected.
