What Kindling does

Kindling is a privately held, New York-based company operating a dual business that spans an enterprise software product and a digital marketing services practice. The software, branded as Kindling, is a cloud-based social innovation and idea management platform that enables organizations to capture, discuss, evaluate, and prioritize ideas from employees, customers, and partners. Core platform features include Campaigns (time-bounded innovation challenges), Categories (persistent idea collections), customizable workflow states (Open, Approved, On Roadmap, In Backlog, In Development, On Staging, Completed), structured Assessments for expert-led evaluation, tag-based organization, and a Volunteering system that lets users opt in to implement ideas. The platform supports SAML, Google, and Yammer authentication for enterprise SSO, is delivered as a responsive web application across devices, and includes a Vault Message Notification Service that archives user actions to customer-specified endpoints over encrypted SMTP for compliance use cases. Technology stack signals include AWS infrastructure, OpenSSL-based HTTPS, and load-balanced SMTP relays, with no public API or developer SDK documented.

The commercial model combines SaaS subscriptions for the innovation software with professional services revenue from web design, SEO, and online advertising offered to small and medium businesses. The software is sold via direct enterprise sales and a freemium 'Kindling Loves Startups' program that grants 50 free seats to any startup founded within the last four years; the marketing services are sold via a consultation-led motion with free 30-minute consultations and free SEO audits as lead magnets. Target segments are horizontal: small/mid-market businesses for marketing services, and enterprise organizations plus startups for the innovation software. The company originated as an internal idea-sharing project at Arc90, a NYC-based web design and development firm, and spun out as an independent entity around 2012. Cumulative disclosed funding totals approximately $5.5M across rounds from 2011 to 2015, with investors including Activate Venture Partners, Arc90, and Lighter Capital; no subsequent raises are documented. No AI/ML capabilities, patents, awards, certifications, or compliance credentials are evidenced in the input.

Name

Kindling

Legal name

Kindling

Website

https://kindlingapp.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2012

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Kindling is a privately held New York company that sells cloud-based social innovation and idea management software to enterprises and startups, alongside digital marketing services (web design, SEO, online advertising) to small and medium businesses.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

New York

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Digital Marketing Services: Revenue generated from web design, SEO, and online advertising services offered to businesses. Services are tailored to each client's specific needs with a consultation-first sales approach.
2. Innovation Software Subscriptions: SaaS-based innovation management software sold as subscriptions. The 'Kindling Loves Startups' program provides free access to startups (50 users) to drive adoption and conversion to paid plans for larger organizations.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Kindling provides a cloud-based social innovation and idea management software platform that enables organizations to capture, discuss, evaluate, and prioritize ideas through Campaigns, Categories, Voting, and Assessments, with enterprise SSO via SAML/Google/Yammer and a Vault Message Notification Service. The company also offers digital marketing services including web design, SEO, and online advertising to businesses, sold through free consultations and audits.

Product overview

Kindling operates as a dual-focus company with two distinct offerings: (1) The Kindling innovation software platform—a cloud-based social innovation/idea management system that enables organizations to crowdsource, discuss, evaluate, and prioritize ideas through features including Campaigns (time-limited challenges), Categories (ongoing collections), Voting, Assessments, in-app notifications, media attachments, and tagging. The platform supports SAML, Google, and Yammer authentication for enterprise SSO. (2) Digital marketing services including web design, SEO, and online advertising for external clients. The company was originally developed as an internal project at Arc90 (NYC-based web design firm) and was spun out as a standalone product.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Kindling Innovation Software Cloud-based social innovation software that enables organizations to collect, discuss, evaluate, and prioritize ideas from employees, customers, and partners through campaigns, categories, voting, and assessments. Includes SAML/Google/Yammer SSO, media attachments, tagging, and a Vault Message Notification Service.
• Web Design Services

Named customers1 record

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration3 records

Feature8 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• Arc90foundingStrategic or Co-development PartnerArc90 is the New York-based web design and development firm where Kindling was originally created as an internal project to help early employees share, discuss and prioritize ideas. The product spun out from Arc90 to become an independent company focused on innovation management software.

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Wazoku: Wazoku offers an idea and innovation management platform including challenges, smart matching, and crowdsourced problem solving. It is a direct peer to Kindling serving enterprise customers seeking structured innovation programs.
• HYPE Innovation: HYPE Innovation delivers enterprise innovation management software with idea campaigns, portfolios, and expert assessments. It targets the same enterprise buyers and use cases as Kindling's innovation software.
• SmartSites: SmartSites is a digital marketing agency providing web design, SEO, PPC, and advertising services to small and mid-sized businesses. It is a direct peer to Kindling's marketing services offering with comparable SMB target customers.
• Qmarkets: Qmarkets provides enterprise innovation management software including idea crowdsourcing, evaluation workflows, and innovation portfolios. It directly competes with Kindling in the innovation software category.
• Brightidea: Brightidea provides idea and innovation management software with campaigns, voting, and pipeline management for large enterprises. It competes with Kindling on the same core use case of structured employee ideation and prioritization.
• WebFX: WebFX is a full-service digital marketing agency offering SEO, web design, and online advertising to SMB and mid-market clients, mirroring Kindling's digital marketing services arm with overlapping service lines and target customer profile.
• IdeaScale: IdeaScale is one of the largest dedicated innovation management SaaS platforms, offering idea capture, challenges, voting, and assessment workflows for enterprise. It is a direct head-to-head competitor to Kindling's innovation software in the same category and target buyer.
• Planbox: Planbox offers innovation management software with idea pipelines, challenges, and AI-driven idea evaluation, now part of the Planview family. It is a direct peer to Kindling in the innovation management SaaS category.
• Straight North: Straight North is a digital marketing agency offering SEO, PPC, web design, and consulting services to B2B and SMB clients. It competes with Kindling's marketing services arm on the same service mix and customer size.

Broad incumbents

• Planview Spigit: Spigit is an innovation management platform now owned by Planview, sitting inside a broader portfolio of strategic portfolio management and work management tools. It competes with Kindling on innovation but is bundled into a much larger enterprise suite.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/kindlingapp
• Facebookfacebook.com/kindlingapp
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/1034442

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds5 records

Investors3 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Kindling