TELSTRA VENTURES INVESTS IN BUSINESS SUPPORT PLATFORM PROVIDER BOOMTOWN

TELSTRA VENTURES
INVESTS IN BUSINESS SUPPORT PLATFORM PROVIDER BOOMTOWN

14 NOVEMBER 2016 – Telstra today announced it had made a strategic ventures
investment in Boomtown, a United States-based company that provides support software
and technical services to technology providers and small and medium-sized
businesses. Following this investment, Telstra is looking to utilise Boomtown’s
technology and services in Australia.

Managing Director
Telstra Ventures, Mark Sherman, said Telstra saw this investment as an
opportunity to use proven technology and the growing popularity of digital
marketplaces to make life easier for Telstra’s millions of business customers,
particularly for payments and networking related issues.

“Boomtown is enjoying
great success in the United States with the growing popularity of their social
support platform, which allows technology and service providers to easily
collaborate and solve technology problems for their small business customers in
real time. Looking around in this rapidly changing market they stood out as
having a simple service that their customers love,” said Mr Sherman. 

“Business owners can
use the Boomtown Connect app to communicate through a live chat or video
session to get on-the-spot IT support and personalized technology training. The
app, which they designed in collaboration with Apple, is simple, intuitive and has been proven to reduce support times by over 50%
compared to traditional phone-based interactions.”

In addition
to remote support provided through the Connect app, Boomtown also has a network
of over 600 certified technicians that can provide in-store support to
customers across the United States and undertake technology installations.

“We are
trialling Boomtown’s technology in the small business market in Australia.
Telstra Platinum Technical Support is already one of our most popular consumer
customer service offerings and Boomtown could potentially take that to the next
level for our business customers,” said Mr Sherman.

Alfred “Chip” Kahn IV,
Founder and CEO of Boomtown, welcomed the investment from Telstra as part of
their latest funding round.

“We are looking at
expanding the geographical footprint of our platform, and with their strong
customer base both in Australia and Asia, Telstra’s investment plays a
significant part in that endeavour,” said Mr Kahn.

“As SMBs increasingly
rely on complex and integrated technologies to operate and grow, the
traditional fragmented support market is unable to deliver the seamless support
experience that business owners need. We expressly designed our platform to
solve this problem and we’re excited to partner with Telstra to help small
businesses in Australia take full advantage of today’s powerful technologies.”