Fresh on the heels of launching on Salesforce, Introhive Inc. has landed $1.5 million in funding from Build Ventures that will be used to enhance the product and attract new customers.

The Fredericton- and Washington, D.C.-based startup just six months ago raised $1.8 million from GrowthWorks Atlantic, the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation and a range of angels.

Introhive helps large corporations to avoid having to make cold calls – especially for sales but in developing other relationships as well – by determining who in the company already has a strong relationship with an organization it wants to reach. Introhive patrols the emails addresses that cross the client company’s server, especially large companies with thousands of employees. If a sales person wants to make a contact at another company, Introhive can identify colleagues who have been emailing with people at the target company, meaning they could be tapped to make an introduction.

A week ago, the company launched Introhive for Salesforce, which is sold over the San Francisco company’s AppExchange, instantly increasing Introhive’s market reach.

“One of the reasons [for the funding] is so many people are using it – they’re on it almost every day,” said Introhive CEO Jody Glidden in an interview. He added that being on Salesforce “has really accelerated adoption rates.”

The latest funding is the first investment by Build Ventures, the regional venture capital fund that launched earlier this year with $48.5 million in committed capital. Co-Manager Patrick Keefe said in an interview the fund is looking at a few opportunities for its next investment, but hasn’t decided on one yet. However, he added Build is looking at a second close in its own financing in October or November with “private commitments.”

Since Introhive targets enterprise clients, meaning large corporations or organizations, the company needs to educate its customers on using the product. Therefore, it had to raise capital to help pay for the sales staff who can work with the larger client base.

Introhive now employs about 35 people, two-thirds of them working for the Fredericton-based development team, and Glidden said they will continue to develop new features for Introhive.

Glidden and Co-Founder Stewart Walchli previously launched New Brunswick’s Chalk Media, which they sold to BlackBerry-maker Research in Motion for $30 million in 2009. They came together last year to found IntroHive, with seed funding from Fortify Ventures of Washington, D.C., and CIT Gap Funds of Virginia.

Even if it enjoys just modest sales growth, Introhive expects the funding from Build Ventures – which it booked at a higher valuation than its previous funding – should last it until late 2014.

Keefe said he had got to know Introhive in the past few months and decided to make the investment because of “a management team that is second to none”, a strong product meeting a market need, and established customer attraction.  He added Build was prepared to make a larger investment, but Introhive only needed $1.5 million.

Operating out of the Volta startup house in Halifax, Build Ventures was launched with funding commitments of $15 million each from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, $10 million from BDC Venture Capital, $5 million from Moncton-based Technology Venture Corp., $2.5 million from Prince Edward Island and $1 million from managers Keefe and Rob Barbara.

Keefe’s comment on its second close is significant because the fact the fund is attracting private money demonstrates that private investors are showing faith in the management team and the opportunities in Atlantic Canada.

[Disclosure: Build Ventures is a sponsor of Entrevestor]