I have been doing Email Marketing for many years, and before you yawn, let me tell you that this post is not about Email Marketing. I read a post about how one of the VCs is investing in apps around Email, particularly Google Marketplace. That got me thinking of all the apps I have been following that are around Email.
Email is far from being dead. The simple and humble email is the most ubiquitous web application on the Internet. Here are some applications around Email that are interesting to watch:
Yesware is an Email for sales people. The application is available for Gmail and smart phones and provides email analytics, customizable templates and CRM integration. They secured $1M in funding in September 2011.
Attachments.me overcomes Gmail’s shortcomings in attachment search. Attachments.me allows you to search by file type, email address, or tag. In March 2011 they received a seed funding of $500K.
Spanning is not strictly an email related app, but it’s a business-class, cloud-to-cloud backup for Google Apps. In April 2011 they reported securing Series A funding of $2M. 
Perkville is a loyalty card solution without any plastic card or any phone app. Your email address is your loyalty card. Neat, eh? The company’s profile on CrunchBase mentions a seed funding of $500K in Jan 2011.
Instead of constantly checking your inbox for important messages, AwayFind lets you configure when and how to alert you of urgent emails, SMS, phone calls or smartphone apps running on the iPhone or Android devices. Awayfind reported getting $800K funding in October 2011.
ShortMail – It’s like Twitter for email. It forces you to cut down your email to 500 characters. They secured $750K Series A funding in July 2011.
FanBridge is a Fan relationship management service. They had secured about $2M in funding in Jan 2011. FanBridge, helps bands, artists, sports teams, and even small businesses and brands manage their fan base through opt-in emails and sophisticated analytics. It manages more than 120 million fans via email alone.
ActivePath has developed a “patent pending” technology that allows Banks to send out emails such that readers can instantly take action on the email – transact immediately via email itself. ActivePath secured Series B funding of $10M in September 2011.
Rapportive shows you everything about your contacts right inside your Gmail inbox and includes information from sources like LinkedIn, Skype etc. I find this quite a useful add on to Gmail. Last year they received $1M in seed funding. Gmail has introduced its own People widget in May 2011.
CloudMagic has built a browser extension that results in an extra search box in your Gmail interface that allows you to rapidly search for anything in your inbox, with results updating as you type and the ability to preview messages from a thread in a tab or open entire conversations with a single click.
LiveIntent helps sell and buy email ad inventory. They secured $8M in series B funding in September 2011.
There are a lot more interesting apps around email marketing, Email and CRM integrations, and browser extensions and so on.
Email has still got its mojo.
[Guest article by Geetanjali Dighe, part of Juvlon team.]
– Recommended Read: Coverage of Email Marketing industry.
Data Source: TechCrunch/Crunchbase.
