Jive raises $12 million for social business

Social business software provider gets new funding to expand product development and innovation

Jive, aiming to bring collaboration software and other social applications to the global enterprise, just announced the closure of a $12 million Series B round of funds, raised by primary-backer Sequoia Capital. Venture investor Sequoia Capital previously contributed $15 million to Jive's Series A fundraiser in August 2007.

If the phrase "Facebook for businesses" doesn't elucidate anything about this company, then consider the many features it touts as comprising its enterprise solution. Jive's social business software allows clients to collaborate in discussions or documents in well-organized hierarchies, groups, and/or projects. Searching tags and bookmarks makes it easy to find such projects and polls can be created to gauge opinions on current work assignments or decisions.

On top of everything that Jive offers, the company recently announced that its software integrates with Microsoft SharePoint, further advancing the sharing of information through the enterprise network.

Boasting that this year has been the company's biggest for innovation and growth, Jive cited the fact that it has added a considerable amount of high-profile clients in 2009, including Lufthansa, McAfee, and Toshiba American Business Solutions.

And the numbers are reflecting it.

For Q3 2009, Jive saw 100% revenue growth over the year before, as the company continues to see quarterly increases in revenue and a gradual trend toward cementing profitability.

In a blog post on the Jive Web Site, CEO Dave Hersh appears extremely enthused about the future expansion of his newly boosted company: "We are going to continue to expand the Jive SBS product footprint by dramatically increasing our R&D efforts." Proceeding to advertise that the growing company has room for new employees, Hersh writes, "We're doing a lot more hiring! In just the last month, we have added 11 new Jivers with 10 more starting in the next two weeks. If you're interested, take a look at our open jobs."

As Jive continues to raise new capital, hire new employees, sign up new clients, and release new products, we can only conclude that this looks like one company that needs to be followed.