The former head of Google Analytics just scored $20 million more for his startup Productiv, which is helping businesses manage the sheer number of software subscriptions they use

JodyShapiro

Productiv, a startup founded by former head of Google Analytics Jody Shapiro, just raised $20 million in Series B funding, just 6 months after raising its Series A.
Productiv helps companies look at which cloud-based software and services their employees are using, and how they are using it.
"So much has changed in the industry overall, but especially in enterprise with this disruptive aspect that SaaS has had," Shapiro told Business Insider. "This was hugely disruptive, there were literally hundreds of applications in use at any given enterprise and real struggle by CIOs to understand what they had...but also to really understand the value they delivered."
Rama Sekhar, a partner at investor Norwest Venture Partners, which led this latest round of funding, said Productiv is addressing a huge challenge that his firm saw in the market for cloud based software and subscription services by applying a Google Analytics model to enterprise software.
Shapiro said the company is raising funding because of the demand they're seeing in the market, and how quickly they've been able to grow.
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With the spread of more and more software as a service tools, companies are being overwhelmed by the sheer amount cloud-based software and services their employees are using. It's that phenomenon that led former head of Google Analytics Jody Shapiro to start Productiv, his new startup.

Productiv helps companies look at what software and services their employees are using, and how they are using them — so they can decide which of the subscriptions and suites they're paying for are actually adding value, and which can be cut.

It's a strategy that's led to Productiv continuing to grow at a rapid clip: It just raised another $20 million in Series B venture funding, just 6 months after it raised $8 million in a Series A round. The round was led by Norwest Venture Partners, with Okta Ventures and Accel participating.

Shapiro saw a need for a service like Productiv's as the number of cloud based software tools — often called software as a service, or SaaS — in the world keeps increasing, making it harder for businesses to organize and make smart decisions.

A big part of that proliferation: Where before, only the IT department had the authority to buy new software, now anybody at a company can go online, punch in their credit card, and start using whatever tool they deem appropriate.

"So much has changed in the industry overall but especially in enterprise with this disruptive aspect that SaaS has had," Shapiro told Business Insider. "This was hugely disruptive, there were literally hundreds of applications in use at any given enterprise and real struggle by CIOs to understand what they had...but also to really understand the value they delivered."

Three big things

Shapiro said he wanted to do three things with Productiv: give companies visibility into all the apps being used in its organization, look at what they're used for, and give advice into how to get maximum value out of these applications.

Companies like Blue Diamond Growers, LiveRamp and Equinix currently use Productiv's product.

Rama Sekhar, a partner at Norwest Venture Partners, which led this latest round of funding, said Productiv is addressing a huge challenge that his firm saw in the market for cloud based software and subscription services.

"Often times you've got hundreds of subscriptions to SaaS products, cloud storage products...it creates this nightmare situation for CIOs to monitor and manage and that's exactly the problem that Productiv solves," Sekhar told Business Insider.

Shapiro started the company in 2018, after heading up Google Analytics, the search giant's tool for tracking website performance, for nine years prior to that. He built up the Google Analytics enterprise business, and brought that experience with him to Productiv.

Productiv Team

The company had its Series A funding round back in April, led by Accel, and raised $8 million. Shapiro said the company is raising funding again so soon because of the growth and demand it's seeing for the product.

"The product has been coming along incredibly quickly, the customer reception has been incredible and so we're finding that our earlier hypothesis was spot on correct and enterprises were hungry for this kind of information," Shapiro said.

The money from this new round will be used to continue building out the product and expanding the team — adding engineers and other employees, Shapiro said.

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