how.fm provides a SaaS training platform that enables warehouse operators to automate pre-onboarding, orientation, health & safety, job-related skills and work instructions. The platform generates company-specific sites so businesses can ‘put training on autopilot’ and improve safety and quality. Current customers include logistics firms such as Kühne + Nagel and Ingram Micro, and brands like Bloom & Wild and Fressnapf across Europe. how.fm’s solution trains workers in over 30 different languages. Launched in 2019 and based in Cologne, Germany, the company plans to use the new funding to recruit across the business and grow commercial teams in Cologne and London. It also intends to expand into the manufacturing, retail and food industries. how.fm builds a digital coach for worker onboarding, training, and performance support focused on manual and hourly roles. The platform covers health and safety, compliance training, and practical work procedures (for example packing processes) and lets customers create step-by-step training videos. Workers use the app to learn on the job, aiming to close a gap in enterprise software serving hourly workforces. Customers include large logistics, manufacturing and retail operators such as Tommy Hilfiger, Duisport, Ingram Micro, a German carmaker, a cosmetics company, a restaurant chain, a physical rehabilitation clinic chain, and the European Space Agency. The company emerged from stealth mode one year ago and has said it will expand its digital training app using new funding. Financially, how.fm has raised an additional $2.8 million in seed funding as reported. How.fm builds a conversational digital trainer that turns simple step lists, photos and video clips into interactive, multilingual how-to guides for smartphones, tablets, smart glasses and phone hotlines. The product includes personalized, multilingual voice-over, interactive Q&A and hands-free voice control so workers can proceed, repeat or query steps while performing tasks. The platform dynamically translates, personalises and synthesises instructions and is pitched to industries with high turnover — food & hospitality, retail, transportation & logistics, manufacturing and construction. How.fm says automating onboarding and support can shorten ramp-up times, free experienced workers, increase output and cut how-to support costs by up to 50%; it also cites a 2.7 billion deskless workforce opportunity. Early adoption includes multiple clients across retail, logistics and hospitality and a deployment with the European Space Agency; the team is 12 people. Financially, the founders and angels have invested in the company and it has received $600,000 in outside backing from founders of Trivago, Blinkist and angels such as Andy Chung and Philipp Moehring, plus $200,000 in research grants; the company plans a seed round with institutional investors by year-end.

Total raised

$9M

Funding rounds

4

Latest round

Seed

Latest activity

May 2022