Front Raises $59M To Take On Gmail and Outlook With Team-Based Email for Work

The Series C round is led by workplace technology leaders from Atlassian, Okta, Qualtrics and Zoom

Front, the software company redefining the email inbox for work, has raised $59 million in Series C financing, more than quadrupling the company’s previous valuation. The Series C was led by several technology executives building the future of work, including Atlassian co-CEO and co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes; Atlassian President Jay Simons; Okta executive vice chairman, COO and co-founder Frederic Kerrest; Qualtrics co-founder and CEO Ryan Smith and Qualtrics co-founder and CTO Jared Smith; and Zoom CEO Eric Yuan. Sequoia Capital, Initialized Capital, Anthos Capital and other existing investors are also participating in the round. The financing will be used to continue driving product innovation and scale go-to-market functions to accelerate Front’s mission to help the half billion knowledge workers across the globe work happier.

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Front transforms the inbox into a flexible platform where knowledge workers can easily organize communication, get context for decisions, and take action faster with their teams. In Front, all work communication — emails, texts, direct messages, etc. — is centralized in one place. With simple @mentions, assignments, shared inboxes, and clear visibility into who is working on what, teams get a shared perspective for handling conversations together. The platform’s powerful automations help people take control of their inbox and prioritize work, while integrations ensure easy access to the apps and data required to get work done efficiently.

“I am thrilled to have these exceptionally talented entrepreneurs and operators join our mission,” said Front co-founder and CEO, Mathilde Collin. “These leaders are building the future of work, and their investment in Front validates our position that email can do so much more for both people and businesses – help them rise to the challenges they face every day, and make work more productive, more delightful, and ultimately more human, for everyone involved.”

“The way we use email for business has been stuck at a standstill for the last twenty years, while every other system and workflow has evolved and improved in time,” said Eric Yuan, CEO of Zoom. “Mathilde and her team have built an exceptionally collaborative communications platform to bring work email into the 21st century. Front will play an important role in the future of work, and I’m excited to be a part of the journey.”

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Front’s opportunity is at the convergence of three distinct market trends: consumers are demanding a more genuine, more human relationship with the brands they do business with; employees are asking for more meaning and fulfillment from their work; and businesses need more productivity, more scale and more reach to remain competitive on the global market. Front believes that the future state of work will be rooted in meeting these new expectations, and that the inbox, due to its ubiquity and its critical role in business communications, will be the key platform from which to do it.

Traditional email clients, such as Gmail and Outlook, were designed for consumers and individuals, not for teams or businesses. By rethinking the inbox from the work context, Front gives teammates access to relevant content, enables productive transparency, and allows brands to scale communications to thousands while keeping the experience personal. Employees are no longer alone in their inbox and can use Front to automate repetitive tasks, integrate tools and workflows into their email experience, and ultimately stay focused on doing their best work.

“Front is creating an entirely new category and rebuilding corporate email from the ground up — turning the inbox into the central hub for work,” said Bryan Schreier, Partner at Sequoia Capital. “Front’s platform adds a much needed human element to our work, and we are thrilled to continue to be a part of the journey and mission.”

Front has been widely adopted within many industry verticals where timely communication directly correlates with business success. Whether professional and financial services, logistics, customer success, or startup companies, businesses in these categories understand that a tight feedback loop between customers and operating teams constitutes a key differentiator.

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