Hubspot is launching a $30 million corporate venture capital fund to invest in promising startups that can boost its marketing platform.
HubSpot Ventures will back companies with software tools that align with the Cambridge, MA-based company’s aim to help small and medium businesses grow, the company says. Target companies will also need to align with HubSpot’s philosophy about customers and culture, and be raising a seed, Series A, or Series B round with a notable lead investor, the company says. HubSpot says it will only make limited investments in companies’ later funding rounds.
HubSpot’s VP of corporate and business development Andrew Lindsay will lead the venture arm. The big idea, he says, is for the the investments to help HubSpot serve businesses better than if it decided to take on developing all new tools in-house.
“HubSpot is not going to be able to serve the varied and diverse interests of all our customers,” Lindsay tells Xconomy. “We have over 50,000 customers today, and they range in size, and they range in type, in geographies. They range in the type of problem they are trying to solve.”
Instead of going it alone, Hubspot (NYSE: HUBS) will invest in companies that fill some of those niches, Lindsay says.
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