Former Yammer execs raise $5.5M to build a work-friendly texting app

Six billion SMS messages are sent every day in the United States, and increasingly these texts are for work purposes.

CoTap has tapped into $5.5 million to speed up development of its mobile messaging app for the enterprise. The company was founded by former Yammer executives Jim Patterson and Zack Parker. After leaving Yammer, they set out to build an enterprise communication product that is mobile first.

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CoTap makes it easier for employees to communicate on-the-go. They will be able to send short messages (like texts) to individuals and groups, start discussions, and access current conversations from the app, and all information is synced across devices.

Mobile-first products and the Bring-Your-Own-Device movement are hot topics in the tech and business communities right now. A recent study by iPass and MobileIron found that 81 percent of companies now allow employees to bring and use their own devices. Employees are working from their smartphones and need solutions that be as productive and organized as possible.

On the one hand, BYOD allows for improved communication, greater efficiency, and higher productivity because work is not limited to sitting at a desktop. On the other hand, this trend brings up major security concerns and is a nightmare for IT teams that have to manage all that data as well.

CoTap said its mission is to simplify mobile communication in the workplace while providing security and compliance features to keep information safe. Yammer evolved internal corporate communications by building social features, and CoTap hopes to do with mobile. CoTap’s founders clearly have expertise in this area but are competing with mobile products from Yammer, Jive Software,  Salesforce’s Chatter, and Tibbr.

This $5.5 million investment will help CoTap bring the product to market. It is slated to launch later this year on iOS and Android. Charles River Ventures led this round, with participation from Emergence Capital Partners. CoTap is based on San Francisco.