Growblocks is a B2B software-as-a-service company (SaaS), has been running for a year and a half and has now raised a second round of capital. The company was founded by three experienced people from the scaleup environment, where they have been involved in, among other things, Falcon.io, Planday, Templafy, Adform and Raffle.ai. 

The product is a solution to optimize and create transparency in sales and marketing in B2B SaaS companies (see more below), and it is now ready to be sold to an (im)patiently waiting queue of clients.

6 fresh million 

The new capital round of € 6 million (approx. DKK 44.6 million) is led by the German venture fund Project A, which has not invested in Growblocks before. Growblocks solves a huge challenge that all investors in B2B SaaS companies know, which is why several investors knocked on the door.

“We chose Project A among the many who wanted to be involved, because they have sufficient experience in scaling B2B SaaS scaleups. Therefore, they are good to have on the journey now, as we need to scale our business, now that the product is ready to meet the market. The investment ensures that we can build a fantastic product at the same time as we can increase sales.” 

says Toni Holbein, CEO and founder of Growblocks

Toni was the Chief Revenue Officer of both Falcon.io and Planday.

“Both Falcon.io and Planday, which I have been involved in, were sold before reaching EUR 100 million in Annual Recurring Revenue. That is not my goal. I want to be on the whole journey and want to keep a stake, almost no matter how big we get.”

says Toni Holbein

Valuable customers in the development process 

In the development phase, Growblocks had a dozen customers with a turnover from 10 to 1,000 million DKK, and they were carefully selected to be able to provide input for the completion of the product. The unfinished solution was delivered in the form of manual consulting work based on insights from a calculation engine, which was the first Growblocks developed. 

The customers use Growblock’s solution to optimize their sales and marketing, but the customers’ activity is also a laboratory where Growblocks can optimize and further develop the product. That is still far more important to Growblocks than the turnover that the customers put in.

“Growblocks hits an absolutely huge, unsolved need, which is obvious once you see it. The founders’ background in a number of prominent scaleups, where they have solved precisely this problem with great success, made it easy for us to invest.”

says Sam Cash, partner at Project A

Growblocks’ value for customers 

In addition to being able to optimize your sales process, the problem and the solution have great significance for the valuation of a company. “Predictable sales”, i.e. that you live up to your sales budgets is decisive for the share price, both on the stock exchange and when a company is traded or receives an investment. Therefore, Growblocks especially expects that companies considering an IPO can see the value in the product. 

“You can regularly see in the news what it means to lack such an overview. A number of rounds of layoffs could perhaps have been avoided with more predictability about what creates the turnover.”

says Toni Holbein

Previous investors join in

In addition to Project A, which comes with the majority of the investment, the lead investor from the first investment, the venture fund Headline, has also contributed, so that the total amount invested so far is approximately DKK 60 million. 

The investors in the company count over 20 business angels, including Toni’s, Olafur’s and Andrew’s former boss, Ulrik Bo Larsen, who founded Falcon.io in his time.

Understanding Growblocks: “Budgeting” for B2B SaaS Sales 

Growblocks makes a solution that helps especially B2B software-as-a-service companies to get structure and transparency in generating revenue ie. the effect of sales and marketing. The sales and marketing process in this type of company is well described and many have experience in running it, but there was no tool that provided an overview. That’s what Growblocks does, and the idea stems from the founders’ own experiences from, among other things, Falcon.io and Planday.

“Everyone knows what a budget is. It keeps track of costs, like wages and rent and lunch, but the top line — revenue — is typically just one line in the budget. We turn the budget upside down and specify everything that has an impact on revenue, e.g. customer segments, sub-processes in sales, marketing and sales work. We monitor this in real time and compare it with the company’s expected development. When an element does not perform, you can quickly put in there“. 

says Toni Holbein

Typically, the company has a target for sales for each month and quarter, and with Growblock’s solution you no longer have to wait for a result on the top line in the monthly accounts.

At the same time, you can simulate different scenarios, e.g. what happens to sales if you hire five salespeople in January? This allows for far more qualified decisions regarding sales.

According to the founders, there are no other similar products on the market today.

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In the past year alone, Templafy more than doubled its revenue and has now sold over 2 million Templafy licenses worldwide, validating the broad market need for its platform.

“Now more than ever, we see the need of global enterprises to support their distributed workforce with solutions that ensure productivity and compliance when documents are created,” said Jesper Theill Eriksen, CEO of Templafy.

The funding comes from Insight Partners and additional funding involved participation from Dawn Capital, Seed Capital and Damgaard Company, bringing the total external capital raised to over € 63 million.

“With our recent investment, we can accelerate our global expansion and continue our M&A activities to further strengthen our position at the center of the document ecosystem,” said Theill Eriksen.

You can read more over at TechCrunch as well.

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“From 2016 to 2019, it rose from $2 billion to $5 billion, growing much faster than in the US, which grew from $15 billion to $20 billion. It now represents one quarter of the US. European companies have been able to raise rounds as large as their US counterparts, and UiPath and Veeam top the list with $568 million and $500 million in total investment respectively.” the report says

This region has been known for being strong in B2B focused startups, of which many are SaaS companies. Even so, for some, such as Planday, this is a sought-after listing. Planday raised an historic € 35 million funding round by leading European investors last year.

“Planday’s roots are Danish but our mindset and know-how is global. By bringing the best of Danish design and a commitment to the empowerment of working people, we have developed a market-leading product and have been backed by the market to grow and pioneer new solutions even more,” says Christian Brøndum CEO at Planday.

Having four startups from the region on the European lists shows the strength we have here. But as with any larger startup, they are not just based here – but taking the strength from this region global.

“We are very much a Scandinvian company — our headquarters are in Copenhagen and our offices are in Oslo, Hamburg, London and Los Angeles. In everything we do, we try to bring the best of Scandic design and efficiency to every touch-point in the Planday platform, experience and partner ecosystem.” Christian says

About the startups

GetAccept – Is a tool for rethinking how sales document work. With their eSigning workflow they help salespeople close more deals.

Peakon – Peakon works with increasing feedback within organisations. Its tool collects employee feedback, analyses it, and then delivers it back to the organisation.

Planday – Planday builds software that makes it easier for managers and hourly workers to communicate, collaborate, and get work done. The focus is to make the relationship between hourly workers and their managers more efficient and productive.

Templafy – Templafy helps users improve productivity, branding, and compliance across business documents, presentations, and emails. Templafy’s platform assists enterprise employees in each stage of the document creation workflow, delivering productive, compliant and enjoyable ways.

You can read the report by Accel Partners over at tech.eu.

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• The Startup of the year award went to the Danish startup Templafy, a company aiming to solve what they call a ”document anarchy” in companies.
• Investor of the year was claimed by Hampus Jakobsson from Malmö.
• Founder of the year went to Jan Erik Solem also based in Malmö, co-founder of Mapillary.
• Eco System Hero of the Year went to Sissel Hansen from Copenhagen.
• Best accelerator or incubator of the year went to Copenhagen based Accelerace.
• Last but not least the best AI/Machine learning startup went to Corti, a company aiming to use AI to help medical dispatchers make life saving decisions.

Great job for all participants, and proud to have such a strong performance at this years award!

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“To maintain and expand this position is perfect both for me and Templafy, so that I can focus all my time to ensure optimal interface between product and market development, while Jesper is the perfect profile to develop our business strategically and organizationally” says Christian Lund.

Templafy has been growing by more than 300% per year and the potential is still far greater. The success is because of the unique and scalable product that is based on a fundamental understanding of the market and customers’ needs. The product addresses a universal need across industries on a global level.

“The market has been very welcoming to Templafy and now we know that it works. Therefore, it is quite natural that there will now be an increased focus on management and execution. It is a growth journey we are on and I think that Jesper is the right man for the job.” says Lars Andersen, General Partner of SEED Capital.

According to Jesper, Templafy has already sold 250,000 licenses and has the potential within a few years to become the most important player in the world market. In Denmark, their customers include companies such as Maersk, VELUX, Coloplast, Pandora, Texas and the University of Aarhus, while their international clients consist of names like Deloitte, BDO, NTT, Petrobras and SEB.

With this internal reshuffling, main players in Templafy are focusing their entire attention towards the growth and success of the company.

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“The investment allows us to power up our strategy execution. Preben has a number of successful companies behind him, Navision included, that resemble the Templafy solution, both in market approach and in their relation to Microsoft. It’s therefore extremely valuable for us to have Preben join the Board,” said Templafy CEO, Christian Lund.

Templafy was founded in 2013 as a spinoff from the successful template management company, SkabelonDesign, as a response to the cloud-first business environment. It now counts 25 staff and is on course for solving visual and legal anarchy in documents for enterprises globally, helping to ensure visual consistency in the two billion business documents created by employees worldwide every day.

Building a strong team

The new investment comes from SEED Capital, Sunstone Capital and the private investor Jesper Theill Eriksen as well as Preben Damgaard. The capital raise comes in the wake of robust economic growth and the prospect of an almost untouched global market with more than 1 billion enterprise users.

“Templafy has created a solution that is extremely scalable and they have a vast market in view. Customers are really happy with the solution and the strategy works. The high degree of talent the company has managed to attract matches its high potential,” says Lars Andersen, GP at SEED Capital.

Templafy has focused its sights on the enterprise segment, and 80 000+ users now on the platform. Securing top executive talent is part of the company’s strategy, recently attracting former TDC strategist, Jakob Ekkelund, and Susanne Lund, who previously ran the Enterprise segment at Microsoft Denmark. Three more high profile executives are due to start in November, all of whom have considerable knowledge of the Microsoft platform. Preben Damgaard, whose business Navision was acquired by Microsoft in 2002 – the largest acquisition ever made by Microsoft at the time – makes the strategic partnership with the tech giant cemented.

“Templafy closes a gap in the market and their product covers a universal need across geographies and industries. They solve a real problem recognised by most businesses. I chose to become involved in Templafy because the shareholders are very experienced and because the technology supports a basic trend and combines dynamically scalable IT services with settlement of software as a service,” says Preben Damgaard.

“More and more companies are choosing to move their software to the cloud. Templafy have chosen to build their solution in a way that fully integrates with the Office 365 platform, which means that they really remove a barrier to cloud adoption for all our customers, gradually ensuring our cloud services are adopted by the users. Cooperation with Templafy was therefore obvious,” says Aaren Ekelund, Head of Division, Microsoft Office.

Templafy raised its seed investment in the summer of 2014, with $2,5 million contributed by SEED Capital and Sunstone Capital.

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“Everyone creates a ton of documents, presentations and spreadsheets every day, but no one really uses the latest company templates. Instead new stuff is build on top of whatever is on peoples desktops. Or maybe on something nice from a few years back. Unfortunately this is exactly how most organizations end up in document anarchy.”

These opening words describe the problem that the startup Templafy seeks to solve. Templafy was founded in 2014 as a spin-off from the Danish company SkabelonDesign. Since its founding the company has focused on solving the long standing problem of streamlining the visual and juridical design of documents in organizations, stated in the TrendsOnline.

ENTERING A NICHE MARKET

Templafy offers a cloud-based solution, that makes it possible for companies to maintain a coherent design in all documents and across all programs. Even though the time-consuming problems associated with incoherency are well known, there hasn’t been a viable solution until now. By addressing the problem with an automated solution, Templafy has entered a lucrative position as leader in a niche market.

The potential of Templafy’s service has quickly drawn the attention of the two venture capital companies SEED Capital and Sunstone Capital. In June 2014 the two companies collectedly invested DKK 20 million (over 2 600 000 euro) in the venture.

With the growing use of different devises such as tablets and smartphones, it has become increasingly hard for companies to maintain a coherent design for documents. There is therefore a global demand for a solution that can integrate across devices.

“Our position on the global market can be simply explained by the fact that our service has its motor in the cloud, so that it works across all programs no matter where they are.” Says Christian Lund, CEO of Templafy.

Templafy currently has contracts with several major Danish companies, such as ATEA, DSB and Scandinavian Tobacco Group. The startup has furthermore sold 40.000 licenses in four countries.

With an increasing global dependency on cloud based programs, Templafy are confident about maintaining their leading position. Templafy recently opened a new office in New York and the company is now seeking to enter the North American market.

The post Templafy becomes market leader by solving document anarchy appeared first on Øresund Startups.

“I didn’t plan to change workplace. It’s been really good being an investor where one can get inspired at conferences and on boards. But I was simply too tempted by the opportunity to dive into the issues – and not just sit on the sidelines” says Jakob Ekkelund.

Templafy provides a template management system for companies: all business documents in a company will be uniform. In 2014, Templafy received investments from both SEED Capital and Sundstone Capital. Ekkelund has invested in the company too. Last summer he invested € 1,7 millions and took place in the board. During this time, Ekkelund says he has been impressed by the professionalism of Templafy.

“They are experienced entrepreneurs who know the industry. Several of them have 10 years experience of skabelondesign.dk. They are very talented at what they do. Instead of throwing out aimlessly into something, they stop and think about it before. I’m sure Templafy can be a great success if implemented correctly – and I want to be a part of that” says Jakob Ekkelund.

Previously, Ekkelund worked for the phone company TDC. He has also been a board member of Bownty, Mofibo and Vivino and been a partner in the company Designfirmaet.

The post The former investment manager of SEED Capital proceeds to Templafy appeared first on Øresund Startups.

After receiving investments from both Sundstone Capital and SEED Capital earlier this year, the startup is almost knee-deep in attention and approval.

The prize for winning this year’s traction award is to present the main event at the end of DEMO 2014.

This is a time of celebration for fellow Dane Mik Strøyberg of scaling service Lemon-Squeeze who not so, graciously, boasts:

“We won! We knocked out 20 American startups, and are now set to follow Steve Wozniak and Peter Thiel on stage!”

Jeppe Schytte-Hansen, a part of the winning Templafy team, attributes their success to securing top level employers by offering them a package that they cannot resist.

“We have people in London, Iceland, Denmark and elsewhere around the world. Securing them was a high priority for us, and the compensation package has to be attractive. If we had saved our money on that front, or required relocation to Copenhagen, we wouldn’t be where we are today,”

We hope that this award is one of many more to come for the Danish startup!

Check out the article by Trendsonline.dk.

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The conference, held for the first time, had set the ambition high – to gather leading investors and entrepreneurs in the Nordics, and have a day full with talks, panel discussions and, of course, pitches.

The high ambition were achieved. Keynotes included venture capitalist Max Niederhofer (DE/DK) from Sunstone Capital and serial entrepreneurs Carl Silbersky (SE). Besides that the panels and talks where filled with entrepreneurs from every Nordic country.

Highlights

Max Niederhofers opening keynote called for further confidence in the Nordic startup scene.

“Everything is amazing and nobody is happy”

– was one of Max statements, referring to his opinion that the Nordics are producing world class startups, but are still complaining that everything is missing. Something he argued is not the case – it is not capital, or entrepreneurs, or good ideas, or anything in particular that is truly missing. We are already doing it.

Besides the 3 main keynotes there where 6 panels, that went thru a wide variety of subjects – everything from venture capital in the Nordics, a panel on startups from the Nordics that are changing the world, and talks about failures and bankruptcies.

Pitches – battle of the Vikings

At the pitching contest there was a nice twist – every Nordic country was represented by one startup. The startups where chosen by one accelerator in each country, those being: Startup Sauna (FI), Startuplab (NO), Startup Reykjavik (IS), MINC (SE) and Accelerace (DK). This was an interesting way to choose startups for the pitches, and made for an interesting setting.

The startups where:

• Ambronite (FI) – Nutritional snack that aim to revolutionise food.
• Kahoot! (NO) – Enabling better tools for classrooms and making learning fun.
• GolfPro Assistent (IS) – E-learning for golf professionals.
• PinMeTo (SE) – Making data of every location in the world accessible.
• Templafy (DK) – Managing templates for large corporates on all devices.

All of these, except Ambronite, where B2B startups, which made for rather interesting pitches – because the market opportunity often might not be that clear for outsiders, but are often huge. Also, many of startups where run by serial entrepreneurs or experienced entrepreneurs – making the business models solid and the ambitions high in each of them. A great lineup, that also highlighted the huge variety in the Nordic startup scene – not just geographically, but also in fields of business.

Winner of the battles of the Vikings was, after a long and hard deliberation by the judges, Templafy – who had an extremely interesting pitch and business case, and could already prove impressive traction, matched by equal big ambitions. Their aim, to define a standard in a whole business section, is something they are already on track to do. We will definitely here more from them in the future!

Personal thoughts

Our opinion is not completely un-biased. We at Øresund Startups were a media partner (althou we have no financial ties to the conference), and I myself was involved as the moderator the Battle of the Vikings pitching contest. However, my expectations of the conference where met and exceeded. They managed to gather a lot of important people in one venue.
Also refreshing – that there actually weren’t keynotes by US or other foreign entrepreneurs, something a lot of conferences often seem to believe is a must. Instead, the wide variety and expertise from the Nordics got a chance to shine. A good move, and something that I think will help boost the confidence in the entire region.

We look forward to next years event. You can read up what others thought over at Trendsonline as well.

Want to know what more larger conference are held in the Øresund region this spring – check out the summary we made.

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