• Velory

  Participated · Series A · Jul 2016

  Universal Avenue provides a platform of digital solutions that digitalizes small and medium-sized businesses and is used by over 25,000 businesses. Led by founder and CEO Johan Lilja, the company focuses on scaling its product and technical platform. It secured an additional US$6m in funding via a stock convertible bond and had a previously acquired US$1m bond converted. Universal Avenue acquired digital agency Varvet to scale up its product team and boost investments in its technical platform. As part of the acquisition, Varvet partner Carl-Johan Kihlbom will join Universal Avenue’s board of directors. Varvet, founded in 2008, has built customized digital solutions for clients including Electronic Arts and Hemnet. Universal Avenue operates a three-sided, on-demand sales marketplace connecting on-the-ground salespeople (brand ambassadors), B2B online/digital companies (often SaaS) seeking to test or expand markets, and local businesses or venues that buy digital services. The platform on-boards salespeople for each specific client and matches the right level of salesperson to each brand, enabling face-to-face B2B outreach without requiring a local office or agency. Because users typically pay only when customers are acquired, Universal Avenue's model shifts a significant amount of expansion risk onto the company and its commission-based sales force. The startup says it can replicate rollouts efficiently after initial trials, positioning the service as a tool to help other startups scale into new markets quickly. Universal Avenue plans to use its latest funding to continue growth in the U.K. and expand into the U.S. in the second half of the year, and currently operates in the U.K., Spain, Greece, Sweden, Norway and Finland. Customers include Spotify Business, DripApp and Shopify, and the company has raised a total of $17 million to date following its recent $10 million Series A. Universal Avenue is a Sales-as-a-Service platform that gives businesses on-demand access to direct sales teams in any location worldwide. Led by CEO and co‑founder Johan Lilja, the company operates via Brand Ambassadors who join as freelancers and choose when, where and which brands to represent, earning money on sales they close. Universal Avenue has local offices and teams in the UK and Greece and is based in Stockholm, Sweden. The company plans to use new funding for product growth, sales and marketing, and expansion of its European and global reach. The article reports a $5M venture capital raise led by Northzone with participation from Salesforce Ventures and existing investor MOOR. Universal Avenue operates an on-demand workforce of trained freelance brand ambassadors who are certified via the company’s mobile app to pitch and close sales for client brands. The platform provides training, certification tests, lead delivery (ambassadors can also use their own leads), and real-time feedback from the field that can be used for market research. It targets businesses where ambassadors can easily reach decision makers, such as hotels, restaurants, cafes, stores, beauty shops, tour operators and museums. Universal Avenue is currently active in Sweden and Greece, with plans to launch in the U.K. later this year and then expand to additional European countries and North America, ultimately aiming for a global workforce. Customers mentioned include Spotify Business (Sweden only) and payments provider iZettle. The company’s commercial model charges brands roughly half of year-one revenues from every sale; ambassadors receive half of that fee when they close a sale directly, or 25% when the company’s in-house team closes the deal.

• Instabridge

  Led · Series A · Sep 2015

  Founded in late 2012 and based in Stockholm, Instabridge began as a way to share home Wi‑Fi with Facebook friends and has since pivoted to a broader crowdsourced Wi‑Fi sharing community and mobile app. The app lets users share details of any Wi‑Fi hotspot and access hotspots shared by others, and the company also maintains a list of known public venues with free Wi‑Fi such as McDonald’s and Starbucks. Instabridge has built a database of roughly 2 million Wi‑Fi spots and reports 2.3 million monthly active users, growing at about 50,000 new users per day. The company has found particular popularity in Brazil and Mexico and targets developing markets where cellular data is expensive. Instabridge says it will use new funding to expand in Asia, starting with India, including building out a team there. The company frames this expansion as part of a mission to increase internet access in developing countries where connectivity can reduce income inequality. Instabridge is a mobile app and crowdsourced Wi‑Fi sharing community that lets users share hotspot credentials and access hotspots contributed by others. Originally founded in late 2012 to enable sharing home Wi‑Fi with Facebook friends, it pivoted to a broader crowdsourced hotspot database including public venues such as McDonald’s and Starbucks. The company claims two million users and says it has recruited 100,000 members to its Wi‑Fi sharing community, with fastest growth in emerging markets including Mexico, Brazil, and India. Instabridge is still pre-revenue; the CEO says the eventual business model will be based on recommending products and services once users come online. Since the prior coverage the Stockholm team has grown from 5 to 13 people and the company has established a four-person team in Brazil, hiring Yelp’s former Nordic community lead to grow that market. The new funding will be used to invest in growth and accelerate rollout of the app into additional markets. Instabridge is a Stockholm-based mobile app and crowdsourced Wi‑Fi sharing community that helps users locate and manage public and shared Wi‑Fi hotspots. The iOS and Android app uses a crowdsourced database of hotspots and comes pre-loaded with venues offering free Wi‑Fi such as McDonald’s and Starbucks. Originally founded in late 2012 to let users share home Wi‑Fi with Facebook friends, the company pivoted to a broader Wi‑Fi management and sharing service. Instabridge positions itself as a replacement for the phone’s native Wi‑Fi manager, and the team is developing software to act as a “SIM‑card for Wi‑Fi” that makes intelligent connect/disconnect decisions. The app is free to use and the company has no immediate plans to monetise, but intends to build out the network first and may monetise later via a WhatsApp‑style model, ads, or a premium service. The startup has seen traction in developing markets where users prefer Wi‑Fi over cellular data. Instabridge is an Android app that aims to be a complete replacement for the phone’s Wi‑Fi manager by giving users access to a crowdsourced database of Wi‑Fi hotspots. The app lets users share hotspot details with the community, includes a pre-loaded database of venues with free Wi‑Fi (e.g., McDonald’s, Starbucks), and can show hotspots on a map or via a compass. It offers features such as cloud backup and sync of saved Wi‑Fi networks across devices and flags whether networks are open or require login/payment. The company originally launched in late 2012 as a way to share home Wi‑Fi on Facebook and later pivoted to a broader Wi‑Fi sharing community. Instabridge is currently pre-revenue and says users add over 1,000 networks per day with roughly 20,000 connections made daily. The app is finding most take-up in emerging markets (Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, India) as well as Spain, the Netherlands, Canada and the U.S., and the team plans an iPhone version shortly.

No current team members are available.