Swedish UGC startup Flowbox raises EUR 7.5 million – gears up Europe expansion
Nordic venture capital firm Viking Venture invests EUR 7.5 (SEK 80 million) in SaaS company Flowbox. With the raised capital, Flowbox will gear up their ongoing expansion in Europe to take a leading position on the market of User-Generated Content.
Stockholm-based Flowbox, founded in 2016, has developed a platform that enables companies to use their customers' social media content in their own channels, so-called User-Generated Content (UGC). The company, which until now has been fully bootstrapped, already has almost 400 customers across ten countries. Annual recurring revenue (ARR) amounts to EUR 3.9 million (SEK 42 million).
With the EUR 7.5 million in raised capital from Viking Venture, one of the Nordic region's leading software investors in growth companies, Flowbox will strengthen their footprint on key markets in Europe, expand its tech and sales teams, and develop additional products. Flowbox currently has 42 employees across offices in Stockholm, Amsterdam, Zurich and Antwerp.
“We are experiencing very positive momentum that we want to exploit, which is one of the reasons why we raise external capital. The choice fell on Viking Venture as they are active investors with deep expertise from previous investments in Nordic cloud companies that have made the same journey as we are embarking on”, said Marcus Carloni, founder and CEO of Flowbox.
“Flowbox is a very exciting company that has succeeded to build a strong position in a rapidly growing market”, said Eivind Bergsmyr, partner at Viking Venture and incoming Chairman of Flowbox. “In just four years, they have gone from zero to close to EUR 4 million in ARR, without external capital, which is quite fantastic. Additionally, we like Marcus who is a true visionary and driven entrepreneur. As part of our due diligence we talked to many of Flowbox's customers and everyone was very pleased with both the team and the product. Given all this, we see a large growth potential in Flowbox.”
As a result of the investment, Flowbox becomes part of the community of Viking Venture portfolio companies that are sharing experiences and best practices with each other. Also, a full-time recruiter will assist Flowbox in the recruitment work, an important part of the company's offensive growth plan moving forward.
Among Flowbox's customers are well-known brand such as Tom Dixon, G-Star, Scotch and Soda, NA-KD, Hermine Hold, and Footway.
For further information:
Marcus Carloni, CEO, Flowbox, +46 708 25 39 20, marcus@getflowbox.com
Eivind Bergsmyr, Partner, Viking Venture, +47 9209 9010, eivind.bergsmyr@vikingventure.com
About Flowbox
Flowbox has developed a platform for UGC (User-Generated Content) that allows brands to use their customers’ social media content to create engaging marketing and increase sales. Flowbox was founded in 2016 and is headquartered in Stockholm with additional offices in Amsterdam, Zurich and Antwerp. Read more at www.getflowbox.com
About Viking Venture
Viking Venture is a leading Nordic software investor in growth companies with more than NOK 2.5 billion in invested capital. The firm is headquartered in Trondheim, Norway, and is an active minority investor in fast-growing software companies with international potential. For more information about Viking Venture, visit www.vikingventure.com
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