For Immediate Release
Monday, October 17, 2016
Above the Treeline Announces Investment by Plymouth Ventures
New Investment to Support Next Generation Platform and Expansion of Team
ANN ARBOR, MI – Above the Treeline announced a growth capital investment today led by Ann Arbor-based Plymouth Ventures. Above the Treeline’s leading product, Edelweiss+, is the book industry’s leading B2B interactive catalog platform. Its web-based analytical and workflow tools help publishing professionals and their business customers work better, read more. This new investment will fuel expansion of the engineering, sales, and customer support teams, as well as support the rollout of the next generation product, Edelweiss+ (http://edelweiss.plus).
Treeline’s software products have become the industry standard, representing hundreds of publishers—including all of the major U.S. trade publishers and over 90% of the U.S. trade book market—millions of titles, hundreds of bookstores, and nearly 80,000 registered book industry professionals. Edelweiss gives booksellers, publishers, librarians, reviewers, and other book industry professionals a single source for information on new book titles in the US and abroad. The application integrates workflow tools for managing product discovery, purchasing, buyer and sales representative collaboration, sales analytics and more.
“While Edelweiss has already transformed the sales and purchasing process in the professional book industry, we’re only scratching the surface of the value we want to deliver to our customers,” said John Rubin, CEO of Above the Treeline. “The partnership with Plymouth Ventures, their financial support and growth stage expertise, will allow us to significantly accelerate our vision of lightning speed responsiveness to our customers’ needs.”
“We’re thrilled to partner with John and the Above the Treeline team. They have built a fantastic, industry-leading product and deliver outstanding value to their customers,” said Evan Ufer, Partner at Plymouth Ventures. “This partnership will provide the resources necessary to continue building out an exceptional team here in Ann Arbor, improving the customer experience via Edelweiss+, and supporting the team’s exciting growth initiatives.” Ufer will join the Above the Treeline board of directors as part of the investment from Plymouth’s $61 Million PVP Fund III.
This investment follows the release of Above the Treeline’s next-generation platform, Edelweiss+, in September. Edelweiss+ provides a stunning visual update—including a more customizable, modern and image-rich look and feel—as well as dramatically faster, more stable and more mobile-friendly performance. Edelweiss+ at http://edelweiss.plus will be available in parallel with the existing Edelweiss platform until early next year.
About Above the Treeline
Above the Treeline, provides web-based analytical and workflow tools to help publishing professionals and their business customers work better, read more. The company’s Edelweiss service has been rapidly adopted within the publishing community as its primary product discovery and B2B purchasing platform. Edelweiss helps publishers improve catalog accuracy, reduce catalog costs, and optimize their sales and marketing efforts. Today, Edelweiss is the place to find, learn about and order millions of titles, and download advanced review copies for industry professionals. Over seven million titles from over eight thousand imprints are represented in Edelweiss, including the largest US trade publishers, independent US publishers, and a growing number of foreign-language publishers from Treeline’s expanding international presence. For more information, visit www.abovethetreeline.com.
About Plymouth Ventures
Plymouth Ventures, a leading growth stage venture capital firm in Ann Arbor, Michigan, is the manager for Plymouth Venture Partners I, II, and III. The company invests in Great Lakes-based B2B product and services companies that have a scalable technology, high growth, and strong teams. Plymouth is led by partners Mark Horne, Jeff Barry, Kevin Terrasi and Evan Ufer. The company was founded by Ian Bund who remains active as a Senior Advisor. For more information on Plymouth Ventures and its investments, please visit www.plymouthvc.com.
For more information, contact:
Ruth Bradstreet
ruth@abovethetreeline.com