Acorn Seed Image by Marion Wellmann from PixabayProfi, the SaaS platform dedicated to servicing the businesses of coaches, trainers, consultants, and therapists, has raised $6 million in its first funding round. Several investors supported the seed round, including its non-executive chairman, Adam Miller, the founder and former CEO of Cornerstone on demand.

The news comes less than a year after the Profi platform was launched. Profi also announced the launch of Profi Team, which is targeted at corporate customers. It enables Profi to deliver its solution to individual professional service providers (“profis”) as well as small and large organisations.

Alina Trigubenko, founder and CEO of Profi
Alina Trigubenko, founder and CEO of Profi

Profi Founder and CEO Alina Trigubenko commented: “The pandemic dramatically changed the landscape for professional service providers while increasing the importance of profis to their clients. We listened to service providers from several different sectors and then developed the only holistic solution that fits their unique needs. Before, to digitally transform their practices, many solopreneurs and professional service firms had to cobble together dozens of tools or spend tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars on custom solutions because ready-made technologies built for them didn’t exist. With Profi, those days are over.”

Enterprise Times asked Brian Fitzgerald, PR Director at Profi, about the announcement. Like many of the Profi leadership, Fitzgerald has spent much of his career as a consultant and understands what profis need. Enterprise Times asked Fitzgerald where Profi would invest the seed funding?

He answered: “The funds will be used to further grow the team (which is now at 50), enhance the product and bolster sales and marketing.”

Profi Platform thrives

The Profi platform enables profis to manage and grow their business. It helps convert prospects, manage client relationships, create and deliver content with billing, secure messaging on a HIPAA compliant platform.

The new Team option provides an enhanced solution without the corporate solution’s bespoke configurability. Profi Team enables small businesses to collaborate internally, co-manage clients, and deliver shared services. Administrators can look after the wider business, removing the administration overhead from individuals. Profi ensures that an administrator’s time spent on these tasks is far less than the sum spent by individual profis. As the organisation matures, the administrator can set different roles and access permissions as a hierarchy evolves.

Profi is hoping for significant growth over the next few months, with increased marketing funds, it should achieve this. Profi offers a 30-day trial for its Solo version, targeted at lone consultants or very small firms. Solo is priced at $49/month to achieve this once the trial is over. No pricing is declared for Profi Team. It is not necessarily the cheapest solution on the market.

The existing customers are enthusiastic, though. UxL Limited recently launched a Profi powered website, Innovation Experts. The site brings together different consultants and Innovation Experts recently received a boost when it won a grant to give twelve businesses in Argyle and Bute access to advice.

Michael Kearns, Director at Uxl Limited, commented: “The Profi platform has transformed our business model and the direction we are taking our company. We are building a community of coaches and consultants with a shared identity and purpose. We are excited about the future and working with our partners at Profi.”

What does the future hold?

The funding will make a significant difference to Profi, as Miller commented: “Helping professional service providers maximize their impact is our number one priority. We have a team with an in-depth understanding of the market and the experience to build a successful business. Our funding and new functionality will enable Profi to help more professional service providers reduce costs, improve efficiencies and enhance their professionalism to maximize their impact.”

Enterprise Times asked Fitzgerald what the roadmap looks like for the platform. He replied: “We will be adding more features and integrations in the coming months, to be announced as they are ready to launch into the market.”

There is little on the website about the integrations in place. What is the strategy?

Right now, our primary integrations are with Zoom, Stripe, PayPal, Google and Outlook. Profi has built-in CRM, collaboration tools, workflow automation and project management. However, we have a pipeline of integrations in our development queue and we offer custom integrations on an as needed basis for organizations that are more complex.” 

What about integrations to accounting or ERP solutions that profis might already use, such as QuickBooks, Xero or Sage Accounting, and for the corporate market Sage Intacct, NetSuite, and Microsoft Dynamics365?

“QuickBooks is in the product queue. Many of those other integrations will be via our API.”

Enterprise Times: What does this mean

Profi is a company that services a specific need. It provides a platform for companies to take and use quickly and is far cheaper than developing their website with the same functionality. The funding will help them realise their growth ambitions.

With Miller’s experience of growing a global organisation, it has a leadership team that understands the business and has potential. It will need to turn that into sales. It will be interesting to see how it achieves that.

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