Waterloo’s Enflick raises $1 million in seed funding, also named Company to Watch by Deloitte

Waterloo startup Enflick, the creator of TextNow, a free picture and text messaging application, and PingChat, a free cross-platform instant messaging application, today announced that they have secured more than $1 million in seed funding.

Co-founders Derek Ting and Jon Lerner said that they will use the seed funding to extend their company’s technology innovation, focusing on developing and delivering solutions transform interpersonal connectivity.

Enflick also announced today that their company has won a Companies to Watch in 2011 Award from the Deloitte Technology Fast 50.

“Companies-to-Watch award winners frequently go on to score high rankings in the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 once they have a five-year track record,” said Richard Lee, National Leader, Technology, Media & Telecommunications Industry Group, Deloitte. “Enflick has quickly distinguished itself for its innovative technology and entrepreneurship and this award recognizes its potential as a future leader in the Canadian technology industry.”

“Coinciding with the funding round and the prominence of our investors, the Deloitte award speaks even more to the caliber of our technology, as well as the momentum that we’ve achieved through TextNow and PingChat!” said Derek Ting, co-founder and CEO, Enflick, developer of TextNow and PingChat! “Our goal has always been to transform social connectivity with the highest quality, low- and no-cost online texting and messaging solutions that can be easily implemented across different platforms and from any location in the world. This funding allows us to maintain that focus as we continue to break new ground with solutions coming down the pipeline.”

Freestyle Capital led the funding round with participation from Menlo Ventures.

“Freestyle is excited to build on the success of TextNow and PingChat! and collaborate with Derek and Jon as they continue to conceive and bring to market social software solutions,” said Dave Samuel, co-founder of Freestyle Capital. “The team has a keen eye as to what’s needed to improve and facilitate social connections online, as well as a proven commitment to making their solutions affordable and accessible to a broad audience.”

“With TextNow and PingChat!, the company founders have shown that they have a solid technology vision, as well as a demonstrated ability to execute on that vision in building a multi-million dollar profitable business with millions of users without any funding to date,” said Shervin Pishevar, Menlo Ventures. “Enflick perfectly embodies the kind of company that the Menlo Talent Fund is looking to back.”

Combined, TextNow and PingChat! serve more than a billion impressions per month with 21.5 million users worldwide. Over 300 million text messages are sent each month using TextNow.