Highland and Grafton in $40m round for Starleaf

Following the investment, the business will expand its presence in the Asia Pacific region and look to double its headcount within the next 18 months.

As part of the deal, Highland partner Laurence Garrett and Grafton partner Oliver Thomas will become non-executive directors at Starleaf.

Starleaf is the fourth venture that its founders have worked together on, having listed local area networking business Madge Networks on Nasdaq in 1993, sold voice-over-internet-protocol company Calista to Cisco for $55m in 1999 and sold video conferencing company Codian to Tandberg for $270m in 2007.

Company
Founded in 2008 in Cambridge and now headquartered in Watford, Starleaf develops cloud-based voice and video conferencing software. Its products are designed to operate alongside other platforms, including Cisco and Skype For Business, in order to allow companies to interact with others that have previously invested heavily in competing voice and video systems.

The company has a headcount of 130 and sells to clients in 50 countries across Europe, North America, South America and Australasia. Having launched the platform in 2013, Starleaf added 65 new clients in 2015 and 150 in 2016. Its roster of customers include Travelex, Bose and Dr Martens.

People
Highland Europe – Laurence Garrett (partner).
Grafton Capital – Oliver Thomas (partner, co-founder).
Starleaf – Mark Loney (CEO); William MacDonald (chief technology officer); Mark Richer (executive chairperson).

• Tweet  
• Facebook  
• LinkedIn  
• Google plus  
• Send to  

• Topics
• Expansion
• UK / Ireland
• Technology
• United Kingdom
• Highland Capital Partners
• Venture