E 2.0 Breakthrough in Europe: Trampoline Systems Raises $5.8 Million
by Jerry Bowles
One of our favorite social software startups (See profile), London-based Trampoline Systems has become the first European “Enterprise 2.0” software developer to receive major investor backing, snagging a £3 million ($5.8m) financing round from affiliates of the Tudor Group. Trampoline intends to use the investment to increase sales operations, intensify R&D and establish a strategic presence in North America. The deal provides further evidence that Enterprise 2.0 is gaining traction with established organizations.
Trampoline is the brainchild of ethnographer turned technology entrepreneur Charles Armstrong. Mentored by sociologist Lord Young of Dartington, Armstrong undertook twelve months of field research in the Isles of Scilly studying the underlying social behaviours involved in information management. He found that today’s business software works against the methods humans have evolved to distribute information.
The company’s main application is called SONAR (Social Networks And Relevance), an appliance that plugs into the corporate network and connects to existing systems such as email servers, contact databases and document archives and analyzes data in the systems to build a map of social networks, information flows, expertise and individuals’ interests throughout the enterprise
“Tudor’s investment gives Trampoline the opportunity to build on its initial foundations and take its place as a force in enterprise software,” says Charles Armstrong, Trampoline’s CEO. “It’s been an amazing experience coming from research on a remote island to being a successful tech start-up. The next stage of Trampoline’s journey is going to be even more exciting.”
