08 Jun IU Ventures’ investments help Bloomington-based Periodic join forces with global service software leader

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — The company’s innovative booking software couldn’t have arranged it any better.

With the support of three separate financial investments in the past four years from the Innovate Indiana Fund, which is managed by IU Ventures, Bloomington-based Periodic, a software developer specializing in helping businesses with their calendaring and appointment scheduling needs, has joined forces with one of the world’s market leaders in email signature management solutions. IU Ventures is Indiana University’s early-stage venture and angel investment arm.

Periodic, established in 2013, is now merged into the Exclaimer Group, a business headquartered just outside of London with regional offices worldwide. With the acquisition and merger, Periodic is integrating its cloud-based, real-time booking platform with Exclaimer’s award-winning platform that helps companies optimize the use of corporate email signatures. The solutions offered by Exclaimer are used by over 50,000 customers in more than 150 countries, and the company is backed by Insight Partners, one of the world’s largest private equity firms investing in high-growth technology.

“We couldn’t be more excited about joining forces with Exclaimer to create a one-of-a-kind platform for our customers and that we will be able to grow and develop our team here in Bloomington with the continued strong support of IU Ventures and our other key investors,” said Periodic Founder and CEO Brad Wisler. (View Wisler’s video announcement of the acquisition. View an IU Ventures video about Periodic and its vision.)

Wisler, who studied at IU Bloomington and has played a significant role in building Bloomington’s tech entrepreneur scene, is quick to underscore the impact IU Ventures has had Periodic’s growth. IU Ventures has supported Periodic through the Innovative Indiana Fund,  which was established in 2010 to support innovation at IU and has been fully invested.

IU Ventures Managing Director Teri Willey served on Periodic’s board of directors and now serves on the board of managers of the special-purpose LLC created as a result of the merger.
“The investments that IU Ventures have made in Periodic have given us enormous validation and credibility,” Wisler said. “In addition, Teri has brought to our board a great blend of understanding market strategy, finance and deal structure. Many venture capital firms are either founder-friendly or investor-friendly. Teri is one of the few people I’ve met who you can honestly say is both. She and her colleagues at IU Ventures are there to produce the best investment return on their funds, of course, but they truly understand that the best way to do this is to back company founders and make sure they find success.”

Willey said it was important that IU Ventures support Periodic, even as the company was still improving its technology, onboarding users and investors, and putting in place a global sales and marketing strategy.

“We’re pleased that the Innovate Indiana Fund had the opportunity to be a significant investor in Periodic through its evolution,” Willey said. “What Brad and his team have accomplished over the past few years reflects the time, patience and nurturing that goes into any successful venture idea. They carefully calibrated their innovative platform to create the best customer experience possible. They scoured the market and potential competition. And all the while, they stayed committed to Bloomington, Indiana. Now they’re hiring more employees and preparing to move into an exciting new space locally (the new Trades District portion of the Bloomington Certified Technology Park) as they expand their global presence. It’s a classic example of how sometimes success takes a while, but good things happen during the journey.”

Periodic is based on a small-scale scheduling and reservations app that Wisler created more than a decade ago while serving as the co-founder of Bloomington-based SproutBox, one of the country’s first venture studios. While he never intended to create a large company around the app, he soon recognized that there was considerable market demand for online scheduling. (IKEA, Tesla and TaylorMade Golf all used the app. IU was also an early user of the Periodic platform.)

Still, Wisler freely admits that Periodic hasn’t been an overnight success and that there were times during the process of building the company’s platform when it “wasn’t all roses.”

“The challenge was, of course, as with any startup, how do I take on something this ambitious,” he said. “Even though we knew there was large market demand, we needed to be able to spend a lot of time building our product and getting it right before we could sell it. That takes time and, of course, substantial capital. Fortunately, IU Ventures and our other funders took the long view, gave us time to experiment and tinker, and trusted that we would ultimately be successful.”

“Everything takes forever. Nothing happens on the timeline you want it to happen on,” he added. “You can’t control timing of these things. All you can do is be ready when time arises. Keep your doors open. Keep talking to people. And keep building a better product.”

About IU Ventures:

IU Ventures invests in and supports IU-affiliated early-stage companies. Its investment programs include the IU Philanthropic Venture Fund, IU Angel Network, Shoebox Fund and Innovate Indiana Fund. It further supports IU founders through the Executive in Residence Program and IU Founders and Funders Network. Student support is provided through a variety of engagements, including the new IU Venture Fellows Program. Each program takes unique approaches to accelerate and support the positive impacts that entrepreneurs affiliated with IU already achieve across the world. IU Ventures is a recognized leader in increasing opportunities for diverse and historically underserved entrepreneurs and investing in Indiana startups with a shared commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion.

Media Contact:

Ryan Piurek
IU Ventures
812-855-5393
rpiurek@iu.edu