Startup 7 Degrees, the developer of social business application PeopleMaps, has raised $6.8 million in Series B funding led by Rho Ventures, vSpring Capital and Parkview Ventures. This investment brings the company’s total funding to $8 million.
Founded in 2007, 7 Degrees has developed a powerful and mature graph database. PeopleMaps is the first application developed by the startup that leverages this technology. PeopleMaps, which launched in October of 2009, aims to give professionals direct visibility into how they are connected to any person or company.
The application allows users to automatically search their personal contacts from Outlook, LinkedIn, Facebook, Gmail, and Yahoo, while simultaneously searching data from public Internet sources. The application’s graph engine then analyzes all of this data to determine “connection paths” to any person or company, which lets you see how you are connected to any person or company. PeopleMaps also pulls in bios of individuals (when they are public info).
The technology is particularly useful in CRM applications, allowing salespeople to determine discover the “key connectors” in their network, and prioritize their sales pipeline based on the strength of relationships so they can focus on the deals most likely to move forward quickly. The startup says that recruiters have also been using the application as well.