Huddle hopes for boost from new deals

It’s not just Gordon Brown who is finding life tough these days: things are hard for everyone at the moment, including a great number of startups. But London web firm Huddle - which makes web-based collaboration and project management software - is hoping that it can buck the trend with a slew of announcements to help drive it to the next level.

The company thinks that its latest announcements - integration with Microsoft Office, built-in web conferencing and an iPhone application that lets users access files on the go - can push it forward against rivals like Lotus and WebEx.

The company’s founders, Alastair Mitchell and Andy McCoughlin, are familiar faces on the London startup scene - where they sponsor regular entrepreneurial meets under the banner of DrinkTank. But they’re also hoping to move beyond the UK and expand rapidly in America, opening a sales office in San Francisco early next year to try and keep their growth - revenues of around £1m this year - heading up.

I met up with McCloughlin this week to discuss the company’s progress and he pointed out that Huddle has already scooped deals with big names like conferencing company InterCall and the business network LinkedIn.

He also said that the company, which took £3m in funding from Eden Ventures in 2007, is getting ready to raise a new round of investment (its second) to help it grow - as well as signing a deal with a major PC manufacturer to get the software on around 25 million business desktops worldwide. So far it looks like the economic crisis is providing them with an opportunity rather than killing them off.