The one-to-one texting platform for advocacy organizations was founded in 2014, but made its name during the 2016 election when Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton were among candidates whose campaigns used the service to communicate with voters and volunteers.
Other clients include Planned Parenthood and universities such as Amherst College, which doubled participation of young alumni in its annual fundraising.
The firm says it has facilitated 38 million personal, one-to-one texting conversations among more than 25 million people in the U.S., Canada, and Australia. Social Capital led the Series A and was joined by a slew of impact and traditional VCs including Canvas Ventures, Omidyar Network, Kapor Capital, New Media Ventures and the Twilio.org Impact Fund.
Twilio.org’s Erika Balbuena said Hustle “leverages the power of communications to educate, organize and fund high-impact campaigns.”