Bradenton-based Star2Star raises $30 million

BRADENTON — Cloud-based, business-to-business communications firm Star2Star, one of the fastest growing companies on the Gulf Coast, has raised $30 million from a private equity fund.

The investment, according to a release, is from suburban Philadelphia-based NewSpring Capital, a series of private equity funds that backs firms mostly in health care and technology. The investment comes six months after Star2Star, which provides cloud-based communications that unify customers' voice, video and instant messaging into one system, announced plans to hire 350 people in Manatee County by 2019. Star2Star currently has about 200 employees, who work out of a facility near the Sarasota Bradenton International Airport. The firm had about $30 million in sales in 2013, up 33.3% from 2012, when it had $22.5 million.

Proceeds from the NewSpring investment, Star2Star says in the release, will “further accelerate Star2Star Communications' already rapid growth.”