Poka Raises $2.5M in funding to launch a social industrial revolution

SaaS company tackles training and knowledge retention challenges faced by the manufacturing industry

QUÉBEC CITY, Jan. 21, 2015 /CNW/ - Poka, the company developing a social platform for manufacturing companies, today announced it has raised $2.5M in financing led by iNovia Capital with the participation of SoftTech VC. Nicolas Darveau-Garneau - a Google marketing executive - will also support the Company as an advisor. The funds will be used to accelerate Poka's product development, grow the engineering team, and expand into new markets across North America and Europe.

"Skilled training is the biggest challenge facing the manufacturing industry," says Poka CEO and co-founder, Alexandre Leclerc. "Poka's private social platform improves workforce development and institutional memory, effectively solving that problem. We've been seeing tremendous market interest for Poka and with this financial backing from iNovia and SoftTech VC, we can focus on our long term business plan and build something that will truly change this industry."

With increasing levels of automation, operating a factory is becoming more complex and requires specialized training at every level of the production line. Poka's social platform creates an interactive training experience that enables employees to share video and images, redefining how employees in this sector learn and collaborate.

"The manufacturing industry relies on the knowledge of high-skilled workers and Poka is efficiently moving this expertise into the digital era. Poka replaces traditional paper-based training models with a mobile collaboration platform tailored to the manufacturing sector. We believe there's a huge market opportunity and are excited to support Alexandre and Antoine on their journey," says iNovia senior analyst, Antoine Nivard.

"Poka helped us break down walls and silos in our company and transfer knowledge more effectively amongst all employees. Now, we see staff making more informed decisions and collaborating interactively," says Jonathan Bourbonnière, President of Multi-Action.

About Poka
Poka is the first social industrial platform that focuses on efficient training, knowledge retention and real-time information within the manufacturing world. Poka's new collaborative approach breaks down the traditional barriers that have divided the workforce, management and factories for decades. Learn more at www.poka.io

About iNovia Capital
iNovia Capital is a venture capital firm that partners with exceptional entrepreneurs to build successful technology companies in high-growth sectors. The team is comprised of founders, builders and engineers that are passionate about building market-leading technology companies. iNovia has $275M under management across three seed and early-stage funds. Investments include: AppDirect, Basis Science, Chango, Collective, LightSpeed Retail, Luxury Retreats and Top Hat. For more information, visit http://www.iNovia.vc or tweet @iNovia.

SOURCE iNovia Capital

Alexandre Leclerc, CEO & Co-founder, 1-418-573-9988, [email protected]; Antoine Bisson, CTO & Co-founder, 1-418-262-2262, [email protected]