European Super Angels Club invests 500k in Yodel.io
With Yodel.io, an artificial intelligent-infused business telephony solution, the European Super Angels Club (ESAC) made its first investment. The European investor network organizes roadshows throughout international hubs with five selected startups. The first stations of the roadshow were Zurich, Amsterdam, Berlin, New York and most recently Vienna, where the event took place at Semper Constantia Privatbank. During this roadshow, Yodel.io Co-Founder and CEO Mike Heininger convinced national and international investors to support the company not only with the financial injection of half a million Euro but also with further go-to-market strategies for Europe and the USA.
European Super Angels Club Event at Semper Constantia Privatbank in Vienna. © Tom Roschanek
Strengthening strategic partnerships
Yodel.io also secured a strategic partnership with NAVAX, which will push the distribution of a jointly developed software solution for Microsoft Enterprise customers. In March 2016, the Austrian startup successfully launched the first Slack-Bot for business telephony and since then developed good relations with Slack. Further integrations, for example with Grape.io, are in the pipeline.
“Co-operations like these are essential to expanding further and open the gates towards new markets and target groups. We work in a massive innovative industry, which will have a major breakover in the near future. Smart and virtual assistants for your household like Google Home or Amazon’s Alexa are huge right now, but there are none for the business sector. We already have a headstart in this sector and this is why we need to strengthen our technological advantage”, says Heininger. He and his team are currently establishing an office in San Francisco.
Already this March, Yodel.io completed a pre-seed round of 225,000 Euro in close collaboration with Venionaire Capital. Invested Business Angels included amongst others: Christian Coreth, Alexander Kleinszig, Michael Petritz, Johannes Strohmayer, Andreas Tomek and Tyrolean Business Angel GmbH.
The Yodel.io team convinced national and international Investors. © Yodel
Further ESAC investments
The current transaction was conducted by the European Super Angels Club’s board member Martin Steininger:
“We are impressed by the innovative power and management experience of the Yodel.io team. We are very proud, that we were able to complete this deal – from the signing of the term sheet to the payment – within six weeks. We would also like to thank all the consultants involved: KPMG, Venionaire Capital, RPCK Rechtsanwälte, as well as the supporting ESAC partners PHH Rechtsanwälte, Microsoft Austria and Semper Constantia Privatbank, who supported us during this journey. Now we can devote ourselves to the next planned investments.”
The success story started in Tyrol
Venionaire Capital and Yodel.io first met last year at the Business Angel Summit in Kitzbühel, organized by the Austrian Economic Service and the Tyrol Tourism Agency.
“Kitzbühel offers not only a unique atmosphere but is also geographically very well located. This certainly explains the great interest of international investors, including Germany, Switzerland and Italy. Bernd Litzka and his team from Austria Wirtschaftsservice presented excellent startups in a pleasant and intimate setting. We are looking forward to seeing which startups will be attending this year”, says Venionaire Managing Director Berthold Baurek-Karlic.
