London, 7th November 2016 – Freespee, the real time conversation cloud technology company, has secured €9.25 million in Series B funding in a round led by French venture capital firm Ventech SA, marking the latter’s first ever investment in a Nordic company. Joining as part of this investment round is growth debt provider Silicon Valley Bank, alongside existing investors in Freespee, Sunstone Capital and Inventure. The investment will be used to fuel product development and sees Ventech’s Tero Mennander join the Freespee board.
Freespee enables marketers to monitor, manage and personalise the experience of every customer conversation taking place through desktop web, mobile web and mobile apps. The company was founded by Swedish software engineers at the end of 2009, with offices in London, Paris, Barcelona and Uppsala, Sweden.
The new investment round will enable Freespee to accelerate the development of its industry-leading conversation cloud technology, which is used globally by brands such as Allianz, Lloyds, eBay, Bupa, Marriott Hotels and Peugeot. The company already manages millions of conversations every month across 20 countries using its innovative technology.
As part of the new investment round, Ventech Venture Partner, Tero Mennander, will join the board at Freespee. As head of the Ventech Helsinki office, Mennander leads the firm’s activity in the Nordics, and brings 25 years of experience in the technology sector across various roles on the entrepreneurial, as well as the investors’ side.
“There is no simple way for a brand to understand how customer communications through phone, chat and email influence and help grow its internet business. We’re building a cloud that gives marketers and e-commerce professionals access to these legacy technology stacks. This investment round will enable us to propel our ambitions to make internet businesses more conversational,” said Carl Holmquist, Freespee co-founder and CEO.
Holmquist continued: “By working with Ventech and our other investors, new and old, we will continue to pioneer new ways to allow our customers to monitor, manage and personalise the experience of every conversation taking place through their desktop web, mobile web and apps.”
“Freespee is a groundbreaking innovator, with technology that is forging the future of enterprise software and Software as a Service (SaaS) in the conversational commerce space,” said Tero Mennander, Venture Partner at Ventech and newly-appointed board member at Freespee. “This sector is demonstrating enormous innovation globally, with Freespee at the leading edge of this wave, and we’re delighted to be joining their team.”
About Freespee
Freespee is a real time conversation cloud company. Its technology is used by marketers to monitor, manage and personalise the experience of every conversation
taking place through desktop web, mobile web and mobile apps. The company was founded by Swedish software engineers in 2009, with offices in London, Paris, Barcelona and Uppsala, Sweden. Freespee’s cloud technology is used globally by brands such as Allianz, Lloyds, eBay, Bupa, Marriott Hotels and Peugeot. www.freespee.com
