UK collaboration startup Huddle has secured something of a first for a company of its size, and location. It’s signed a two-year deal with Hewlett Packard to enable direct access to its service on the 25 million business PCs HP sells annually.
Huddle will be in a suite of five trial applications included on every HP business computer, starting in the U.S. and extending to the rest of the world. That’s quite a big deal for a startup this size – and relatively unusual for one not even based in the U.S.
The deal is based on a revenue split with HP on new signups to the service, which effectively offers a discount for HP customers on Huddle’s tools. The other programs will include three HP- services and antivirus software from Symantec. The three-year-old company, which raised £2.3m from Eden Ventures in 2007, says it is close to break even and is looking for another round of financing to fund expansion.