Realtime streams are quickly moving from the consumer Web to the enterprise. The constant flow of status updates, links, and shared items people are becoming accustomed to on Facebook and Twitter is finding its way into enterprise apps like Socialcast, Yammer, and Salesforce Chatter.

Investors are betting on this trend. Socialcast is getting an $8 million cash infusion from Menlo Ventures and True Ventures in a Series B financing. In February, 2010, competitor Yammer raised a $10 million Series B.

Socialcast previously got $1.4 million from True Ventures and angels a year ago. Blogger Om Malik of GigaOm, who is also a VC partner at True, sits on Socialcast’s board. He will be joined by Menlo’s Sonja Hoel Perkins.

The startup’s service combines a corporate activity stream that ties into CRM and ERP systems with social bookmarking, Outlook and SharePoint integrations, mobile (iPhone and Blackberry) and desktop (Air) apps, and analytics. Co-workers can share knowledge and updates in a semi-private setting. Socialcast moved to a freemium model last summer, offering the basic service for free, and charging for upgrades and premium features. The company offers both hosted and behind-the-firewall options. It boasts 7,000 corporate customers, including Guitar Center, turner Broadcasting, and Avaya, and an 1,100 percent growth in users from a year ago (albeit off of a small base). Yammer, by comparison, claims to power 60,000 corporate networks. The realtime enterprise is obviously a growth industry.

Crunchbase

• SOCIALCAST
• YAMMER

Company: Socialcast

Website: socialcast.com

Launch Date: June 2005

Funding: $9.4M

Socialcast is a leading provider of Enterprise collaboration software to facilitate real-time employee communication while analyzing the social graph for measures of productivity. Socialcast is deployed either on-premise or on-demand using activity streams to effectively accelerate information awareness amongst employees.

Learn more

Company: Yammer

Website: yammer.com

Launch Date: September 10, 2008

Funding: $142M

Yammer is an enterprise social network, providing a secure way for employees to communicate, collaborate, and share information. The company was founded by David Sacks formerly the COO of PayPal. Yammer grew out of the genealogy app Geni as a way for organizations to communicate. Employees using Yammer can discuss ideas, post news, ask questions, and share links and other information. Yammer also serves as a company directory in which every employee has a profile and as a knowledge base where...

Learn more