GroupSpaces Platform Help Online Management of Groups

GroupSpaces is a free, easy to use platform to help real-world groups and communities manage themselves online. It announced that it secured a $1.3 million investment round from Index Ventures and a leading angel investor consortium, and high-profile investors of CODE Advisors. 

 

The software helps manage over half a million memberships for sports clubs, charities, university societies, national associations and many other groups. The existing investors also participated in the round, and Index Ventures partner, Mike Volpi will take a board seat.

 

Groups such as sports clubs, hobby groups, associations and student societies have benefited by the all-in-one set of tools designed to meet their individual needs.

 

This integrated offering by GroupSpaces has not only made administration easier, but it has also improved member communications and saved a lot of time for group organizers and officers. It is considered to be much better than even the Yahoo group for mailing list and member records in Excel.

So what is it that is different with GroupSpaces? Firstly, it differentiates itself by requiring only group leaders to sign up, thus ensuring that the other members of existing real-world groups are able to adopt and get started almost immediately.

 

Another advantage is that group members can be imported from Excel, and then receive e-mails, register for events and do all the things that group leaders do, without having to create a user account or a password. 

The company was founded in 2007 by David Langer and Andy Young whilst they were students at Oxford University. In fact, the company was an offshoot of their personal experiences of running clubs. Ever since then, it has expanded gradually. After saturating clubs at Oxford, large clubs across U.K.'s top universities have adopted GroupSpaces. Currently, the site manages over 500,000 group memberships.

 

For student groups, the service is free and other groups, who have more than 250 members, are charged at $7.50 per month. Revenue is generated by premium accounts, transaction commissions, and targeted advertising.

 

With GroupSpaces, it is possible to be included in Google's (News - Alert) search engine, attract more members and drive more traffic. The member database can be securely stored online, management can be shared between the committee, and handing over and delegating is facilitated.

GroupSpaces founder, David Langer expressed delight at having been able to attract such high profile investors to the funding round, and hoped that their expertise would help in the growth and progress of the company, by helping it to expand into new geographic territories, attracting top talent and making the product attractive to all.

Mike Volpi, board member and partner at Index Ventures regarded GroupSpaces as a wonderful starting point to the Index Seed fund, adding that with an impressive entrepreneurial team, GroupSpaces had tremendous potential to develop into a one-stop-shop for groups all over the world.

 

 GroupSpaces has expanded into an international market with a growing number of groups and users in over 30 countries.

 

In a related news item, IGLOO (News - Alert) Software, a provider of online community and social software solutions for business, announced the release of integrated GroupSpace functionality for team collaboration. GroupSpaces allow employees to instantly self-organize around specific projects, teams and even departments within their online business community.