UPDATED 21:03 EST / JANUARY 15 2019

CLOUD

Smartsheet acquires creative production platform startup Slope

Collaboration software supplier Smartsheet Inc. has acquired TernPro Inc., the maker of Slope, an application that assists teams to collaborate on and manage creative work.

The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. The company had raised $2.6 million in funding prior to its acquisition.

Founded in 2014, Slope allows for the management of tasks, projects, creative proofing tools and overview dashboards in the one place from start to finish. The company’s platform is claimed to be an end-to-end software solution specifically tailored to solve the everyday challenges of managing creative work. Slope claims to have more than 100 customers across marketing, finance, retail and other industries.

“The acquisition of Slope will strengthen our leadership position in the collaborative work management category by adding the ability to collaborate on everything from videos to documents directly in Smartsheet,” Mark Mader, chief executive officer of Smartsheet, said in a statement. “This is relevant to workflows in a wide range of use cases and industries, including marketing and creative work, and supports our vision to empower everyone to more effectively plan, track, automate and report on work regardless of technical skill level.”

Slope will not remain as a standalone company, though. Smartsheet plans to integrate its features into its existing platform. Co-founders Dan Bloom and Brian Boschè, along with other Slope employees, will join Smartsheet.

The company’s existing content review and proofing features will allow Smartsheet users to provide feedback on images, videos, documents and other content. Other parts of Slope will be used to drive the creation of a set of Smartsheet Accelerators, packaged solutions designed to assist customers in specific tasks — in this case, to deliver mission-critical marketing and creative development workflows.

The acquisition, Smartsheet’s second, follows in the footstep of their successful public offering in April. Unlike some tech companies that have struggled as markets started a downward trend last year, Smartsheet has maintained a solid share price, sitting at $26.54 as of the close of trading Tuesday, up from its debut price of $19.50.

Part of its ongoing strength is its viral success. As discussed on SiliconANGLE’s video studio theCUBE Oct. 4, a major financial company’s employees used Smartsheet’s YouTube channel to train themselves to use the software. It was later revealed that the financial company was PayPal Inc.

Image: Slope

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