Breitenbach will lead Ulobby in close partnership with Michell Nørgaard Jensen, who continues in her role as Chief Operating Officer (COO). Jensen, with her 20 years of leadership experience in customer-focused roles across SaaS and services, has been instrumental in aligning product, operations, and customer success. Her sharp eye for turning complexity into clarity will continue to drive this alignment forward.

The company is also pleased to announce the appointment of Mariann Malchau Olsen as the new Head of Public Affairs Solutions. Olsen, who has a unique understanding of the day-to-day challenges and needs of Ulobby’s customers, has played a central role in the development of the company’s platform and will continue to do so. Her addition to the leadership team is seen as a significant asset.

Together, Breitenbach, Jensen, and Olsen bring a powerful combination of leadership and expertise to guide Ulobby forward. This leadership trio is backed by a strong, dedicated team, ready to navigate the evolving landscape of Public Affairs.

Navigating a Transforming Landscape

“The old methods—relying on spreadsheets and scattered contact lists—no longer work. Today’s political landscape demands a structured and proactive approach to stakeholder management, one that can adapt across organizational levels and detect change early.”

says Sosun S. Breitenbach.

Ulobby has closely observed the significant shifts in the Public Affairs discipline, driven by rising expectations and major technological, political, and societal changes. These transformations have redefined how PA teams operate, making it essential for organizations to not only react to political developments but also to anticipate changes, coordinate internally, and engage with key stakeholders in a timely and strategic manner.

“It’s teams that create results—when they share knowledge, coordinate efforts, and act on insights and data. Fragmented efforts only slow you down,”

Sosun adds.

To address these evolving needs, Ulobby is developing a comprehensive, AI-powered platform that integrates political and stakeholder monitoring, AI-driven mapping, sentiment analysis, and an easy-to-use stakeholder management system. The goal is clear: to help Public Affairs teams work smarter, stay more aligned, move faster, and make data-driven decisions.

“Over the last decade, a paradigm shift has taken place in Public Affairs. A growing number of stakeholders—both internal and external—now influence the playing field around the clock. As a result, modern PA teams must work differently than before. They need to work not just harder, but smarter—and better together—in order to perform,”

says Anders Kopp Jensen, co-founder of Ulobby

“Technology plays a key role in this new reality. With the new management at the helm, Ulobby will not only consolidate its role in this transformation but also shape how PA teams across Europe operate and collaborate to increase performance.”

Jensen continues

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Recently the startup has recently seen a major change in their board. Mogens Hafstrøm Nielsen has taken over as the new chairman of the board back in August. With his many years of experience with SaaS scale-ups, he will contribute to further expansion, especially in the Nordic region, as well as help the company to deliver profitable growth in the future and become Europe’s leading stakeholder management platform.

According to the new chairman of the board, Ulobby’s software platform, current market position and strong team in particular are helping make Ulobby a successful company.

“Ulobby is a SaaS scale-up that has proven viable and with a good opportunity to achieve a leading position in the European market. As Chairman of the Board, I look forward to helping to facilitate the development that the team is already in full swing with, and which we must continue with a view to further success both in and outside Denmark,” says Mogens Hafstrøm Nielsen.

Mogens Hafstrøm Nielsen has many years of experience as an entrepreneur, CEO and consultant. In addition, he has been a professional chairman of the board and an investor in B2B SaaS scale-ups
for several years , which makes him the perfect profile for Ulobby.

“Mogens has a global outlook and many years of experience with market penetration, go-to-market strategy and not least international rollout. We want to expand further, especially in the Nordic region next year, and at the same time we are in a unique position as a scale-up – we are well on our way to profitability, which Mogens can also help us achieve for 2022 with his experience from other companies,” says Anders Kopp Jensen, CEO and co-founder of Ulobby.

The company currently has 17 employees and offices in Frederiksberg (Copenhagen) and in Brussels. Read more news about Ulobby here.

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Today we are publishing an interview with Ulobby’s CEO Anders Kopp Jensen, who shares about doing international business in a pandemic.

Thanks for joining us! It has been a few months since our last post about Ulobby. What has been going with the startup?

Since the last time we have closed 2020, which in spite of the global pandemic, actually was another good growth year for Ulobby.

There are certain drivers in our marketplace right now which continues to drive demand: On the macro level, as political risk and uncertainty rises in the tail wind of COVID-19, Public Affairs is uniquely suited to assume a more business-critical position as the value at stake from regulatory changes or intervention is enormous.

Looking at the micro level, in the beginning of the pandemic, I was asked quite often about the health of our business as Public Affairs or lobbyism is – for many – synonymous with 1:1 meetings, network lunching and drinks in dim lighted bars. Network is important, but as I have stressed many times since we established Ulobby in 2016, this perception, of how you actually get influence, is both misunderstood but also changing as AI-generated data insights will play a bigger role in Public Affairs, especially once the main-stream or late majority segment – in an “S-curve” terminology – see themselves how technology can actually increase their performance. So in short, these drivers really formed 2020 in our space and drove demand up.

How has it been with the expansion in the Nordics?

We have increased our market share in the Nordics overall in 2020, and will launch officially in Sweden during the coming months. We were of course concerned that we could not travel as much and get boots on the ground, but it has actually not been a big blocker for us in terms of converting leads to clients which means our CAC has also been reduced. 

Any reflections on managing or working in a startup during the pandemic? How has your team kept their spirits up while working remotely?

As we have had a “remote first” culture from the get-go it has not been a big challenge for the team to adjust to more workdays from home. We now have 23 colleagues spread across 6 destinations in Europe, so Slack was also the preferred communications channel internally pre-COVID. But of course the social energy you get from eating lunch with your colleagues or flying the whole gang to a team retreat like we do a couple times a year usually, of course we all feel we miss these things. To try to compensate for this we have implemented virtual coffee breaks and Friday bars as well as arranged virtual mindfullness session. We have also sent a few “swag packs” during the pandemic and tried to surprise the team a bit.

We have read that you have started a podcast on Public Affairs, exciting! Would you like to share a little about it with our readers?

Yes, so the podcast is now out both on Apple podcast and Spotify and is called “The Persuaders”. In the podcast we dive in to how Public Affairs professionals solve their daily challenges, their trials and tribulations and their tips and tricks. The idea for the podcast came after I in 2020 wrote a book called “The Public Affairs Engine”, a guide on how to build and fuel the PA engine in your organization. The guide was based on more than 500 conversations with PA professionals across Europe and there was just so many interesting findings so I had to create a forum for sharing and discussing these topics further. And the podcast has just been so amazingly well received so far. 

What are Ulobby’s plans for the upcoming months?

Our continued expansion on two fronts: in the Nordics and Brussels. We have recently launched a new product line on top of the SaaS-platform called “surveys and reports”. We have for some time been aware of a big pain for our target group: measuring performance and legitimizing their work internally. So we decided to add this product line, and – powered by Ulobby data and intelligence as well as polls – the users can now get a better sense of their performance, and share them internally in a smart and visual way as well as order polls through us. It has been very well received so now we are looking in to have we can add more layers of intelligence to this product line. 

What will be the first thing your team and you do when you return to the office after the lockdown?

We have a history in Ulobby of eating a lot of good food together at nice restaurants all over Europe. So my guess is that we all look forward to going out for a nice dinner. I think something almost magical happens when you sit down together and share a good meal. Personally I also look forward to meeting our new team members in real life for the first time. We hired quite a few new team members in 2020 which we due to COVID-19 have never met. So I look forward to meeting them and hearing about their governments and political systems – the Ulobbyist are political wonks after all. 

—

We at Øresund Startup News would like to thank Anders for the interview and insights into Ulobby’s daily life. If you are interested in finding out more about Ulobby, read the last year’s interview here.

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The startup is announcing a new funding round completed during the Covid-19 pandemic. Vækstfonden (the Danish Growth Fund) has now joined the investor group in addition to existing investors, which include CAPNOVA and the Brussels-based Cullen International.

“Despite the uncertainty caused by Covid-19, Ulobby managed to grow in Q1 and Q2, which generated positive interest from investors from all over Europe. In the end, we decided to go with Vækstfonden because they have the expertise we need in order to scale the company further,” says Anders Kopp Jensen, CEO and co-founder of Ulobby.

The new funding will prepare Ulobby for expansion into the Nordics, with Sweden and Norway being particularly interesting markets. Moreover, Ulobby aims to strengthen its presence in Brussels; a key market for the company as clients have a growing interest in the EU. With the expansion into the Nordics, Ulobby aims at becoming market leader in Northern Europe within two years. During Covid-19, Ulobby also experienced a growing client base in Germany, United States, as well as from the Brussels hub into the Nordic countries. The company currently employs 18 staff with offices in Copenhagen and Brussels.

“We have been exploring the Nordics for a long time, and moving into the region is a natural next step for us. The initial feedback has been incredibly positive and, as the lobby and Public Affairs market in Sweden is considerably bigger than in Denmark, we see a significant growth potential. The fact that we have onboarded Swedish clients even before we have officially entered the market only confirms this potential, and we are currently both recruiting and looking for partners,” says Anders Kopp Jensen.

As a consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic, many industries have been put under severe pressure. Governments worldwide have initiated relief packages, subsidies, and postponed deadlines to give financial support to companies in need. Simultaneously, many businesses have realised the importance of being able to influence the roadmap for reopening society, ultimately making advocacy a matter of the company’s life or death.

“Public Affairs is becoming even more business critical as a consequence of the political changes happening in the wake of Covid-19. It is evident that the political uncertainty caused by the pandemic has made the importance of Public Affairs clearer among management in companies and organizations, and therefore many see the potential in tools like ours,” Anders Kopp Jensen says.

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The startup kickstarted 2020 by appointing Fruzsina Karolyi as EU Public Affairs Director, who will be in charge of expanding Ulobby’s client base in Brussels and increasing Ulobby’s brand awareness in the EU. Another important task will be to establish and grow Ulobby’s team in Brussels as well as the presence on the EU level.

“Brussels is a key market for Ulobby. Our client base outside of Denmark is expanding, and our current clients have a growing interest in the EU. I am therefore very pleased to have Fruzsina on board to head up our business in the region,” says Anders Kopp Jensen, co-founder and CEO of Ulobby.

As mentioned previously, the startup is looking to scale the business further in the new year, in part by entering new markets.

“2020 is going to be an exciting year for Ulobby. In addition to strengthening our presence in Brussels, we are planning to expand to Sweden and Norway. The Swedish and Norwegian markets are somewhat similar to Denmark, so it is a natural next step for us to take the business to our neighbouring countries,” continues Anders.

The Danish start-up will raise a Series A investment in the coming months to expand growth in Brussels and the Nordics.

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The startup was founded in 2017 and it is available in Denmark and Belgium. Now the startup has expanded further internationally and we have reached to Ulobby‘s cofounder and CEO Anders Kopp Jensen for an interview. Read more about what Ulobby has been up to below.

Hello Anders! Welcome back to Øresund Startup News. Tell us briefly, what has been going on with Ulobby since our previous feature?

For the last couple of months two especially big things have been in focus: The first is recruiting and onboarding new colleagues to keep up with the many new clients coming in. On average we have experienced a revenue growth of +10% month-by-month since June, so this means that all our processes also need to be structured for scaling so fast. We want to make sure all our users get a great experience when they use our platform to handle their political issues.

The second big thing in focus for us is funding, as we are preparing to raise a new round in March for further expansion.

Raising a new round is not just about getting a term sheet signed, it is also about finding the right investors for what we want to do and how we see the future. It needs to be a match for both parties, so we do our homework before we talk to possible investors.

As we are scaling a B2B SaaS platform we are especially looking for investors who have experience in this area and who can help us scale the platform to new markets.

Ulobby is expanding to the Swedish market now, right? Exciting! Can you tell us a little more about that?

Yes, that is exactly what we are doing. For the past couple of months we have been exploring the Swedish and Norwegian markets, as we are preparing to enter these countries during the next quarters. We have had very good initial feedback and actually got our first users in Sweden last month before even launching there, so we definitively believe there is a demand in the Nordics. So right now we are preparing the launch which includes a lot of ground work as well as exploration of potential partnerships to get more distribution as quickly as possible.

How many potential customers do you have in Sweden?

Well, if we look at the Swedish lobby/Public Affairs market compared to say the Danish, it is much bigger, estimated to at least 5-10x.

When we look at what is called “the Serviceable Available Market” for the countries we are focusing on, the spend is around €350 million yearly, growing around 10-15% a year. So what is the macro driver for this? Basically it correlates with the growing political uncertainty around Europe, which then results into increasing political risk for companies and organizations. The micro driver, inside these companies and organizations, is that due to this political uncertainty, they want to understand their political issues in more detail, and what is new is that they actually want to analyze and explore these patterns and data themselves on an ongoing basis instead of e.g. outsourcing this work to others and get it once or twice a year.

Is the product for the Swedish market different from the one in Denmark or Belgium?

Ulobby is currently present in Denmark and Brussels, and, of course, there are differences in these markets and the political parliaments are different, but at its core our platform is built on technology and tools which suits Public Affairs Professionals no matter where they are based in the world. We already have clients across many countries and continents, so, for example, the language barriers are no longer an issue.

In Europe we can basically enter new markets in a matter of weeks if we decide to push the button.

How do you see Ulobby developing throughout the next few years?

We want to keep growing, which is why we expect to be present in 4-5 more countries before the end of 2023. Put simply, we want to be number one platform for Public Affairs Professionals in Northern Europe within 3-4 years, and then expand to southern Europe from there. We already had a lot of requests from Germany and we currently actually have UK clients, so these markets could be next up.

Besides growing horizontally, we also want to expand vertically, meaning that we are working in stealth mode on some new features in the area of semantic analysis and Natural Language Processing (NLP), which could be applied in other sectors such as advertising, communications or marketing. Basically it will make it possible to predict behaviour and movements in the public debate which could provide companies and organisations with huge advantages. So, all in all, the best is yet come!

Thanks a lot, Anders. We at Øresund Startup News are looking forward to writing more about your progress in the future!

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The startup was founded in 2017 by Anders Kopp Jensen (CEO) and Bertel Torp (CTO), who saw the gap on the market for an easy-to-use tool for Public Affairs professionals to help them handle and solve critical political issues for their companies. Political regulation is becoming an increasing threat to organisations and companies globally as new legislation can shut down a business overnight.

Ulobby’s founders:  Bertel Torp and Anders Kopp Jensen

Our software is unique, because we understand the daily trials and tribulations of the lobbyists, as we have built our platform *together* with clients, thereby solving their pains and not just delivering nice-to-have functions. As we have worked in politics ourselves and as lobbyists, we have experienced the very analogue and time-consuming working methods which is still the status quo.

Ulobby is a B2B SaaS startup, and its software includes tools that monitor issues and stakeholders, manage activities, help run a professional lobby campaign and gather political intelligence.

The technology behind Ulobby is based on AI, natural language processing, stance detection and topic mining. What is more, it is easy to integrate the data from Ulobby’s platform into clients’ systems.

Our software provides ‘peace of mind’ by automating issue tracking and digitising issue and stakeholder management. Users can increase political influence and minimize political risk. Today much is left to chance, manual work or expensive advisors.

Currently Ulobby is the largest lobbying platform in the Nordics. The startup’s founders shared that they are also planning on expanding further to Sweden and Norway in 2020 and is currently investigating possible partnerships there.

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