Usurpo

After last night's match, this week's Funding Friday post is dedicated to Denmark, typically famed for it's suitable for all ages, Lego; it's perfectly quaffable, Carlsberg and amazing story teller, Hans Christian Andersen. With a booming economy, regularly ranked in the top 5 in Europe, Denmark supports a high standard of living - its per capita gross national product is among the highest in the world - with well-developed social services. The economy is based primarily on service industries, trade, and manufacturing; only a tiny percentage of the population is engaged in agriculture and fishing. However, it's the Danes' SaaS scene we'll be highlighting today and according to our friends over at Crunchbase, these are the 10 businesses to have received funding so far this year... SynergyXR | DLKK15,000,000 | Venture Round N/A SynergyXR provides enterprise-level Extended Reality (XR) software tailored for the industrial, energy, and manufacturing sectors. Formalize (formerly Whistleblower Software) | €15,000,000 | Series A Formalize is an intuitive yet comprehensive compliance operations platform. Pleaz | Amount Unknown | Seed Pleaz is the hybrid co-pilot for employee activity clubs, fostering Community, Wellbeing and Engagement. Subsets (YC S23) | $1,650,000 | Pre-Seed Subsets is an artificial intelligence company that offers AI-driven retention automation for subscription media. BeCause | $600,000 | Seed AI-powered Sustainability Management Hub for Travel. Hakio | €4,000,000 | Seed Hakio is a B2B SaaS solution with AI-driven demand forecasts in fashion for optimised inventory and less waste. Go Autonomous | $13,310,551 | Series A SaaS, B2B, Autonomous Commerce, commerce, order-to-cash. Aegir Insights | $9,585,228 | Series A Aegir Insights helps clients make better decisions about offshore wind investments, faster. Portchain | $5,000,000 | Seed Using technology to solve the hardest operational problems in shipping. Keepit | $103,786,328 | Debt Financing Keepit provides cloud backup and SaaS workload protection services for Office 365, Google Apps, and Salesforce. Not only great to see, but also a fantastically diverse range of products and sectors highlighted above. And as far as the football goes, "held og lykke med resten af turneringen". #funding #venturecapital #saas #denmark #technology

A great team collaboration day in London yesterday, full of sharing best practices, working smarter and streamlining processes. This was followed by an evening of Chinese food and, of course, a couple of espresso martinis. Exciting times ahead - what a team! Dan Rhodes Damian Bird James Harrington Karin Themsen Ben A. Anthony S. Ben Hopkins Dani Blake

Get in touch with Karin Themsen if you believe you are suitable for any of the roles she's currently working on... #fintech #accountingtech #gtm

This week, Industry 4.0 has seen close to 100 businesses receive funding. Below are 10 of the larger deals to take place across the likes of AI, Machine Learning, NLP, Industrial Manufacturing and Autonomous Vehicles: Pika | Series B | $80,000,000 - Californian startup Pika develops an AI-powered platform for editing and generating films from captions and still images. restor3d | Series A | $55,000,000 - Restor3d creates 3D-printed orthopedic implants using Artificial Intelligence and biomaterials to enhance personalised musculoskeletal care. Twelve Labs | Series A | $50,000,000 - Twelve Labs is making video foundation models accessible via APIs to empower businesses and developers to build intelligent video products. Neural Concept | Series B | $27,000,000 - Based in Switzerland, Neural Concept revolutionises industrial engineering design with AI Deep Learning algorithms Vantage Discovery | Series A | $16,000,000 - Vantage Discovery is a generative AI-powered SaaS search and content discovery platform that provides personalised shopping recommendations. Modyfi | Venture (unknown) | $14,649,959 - Modyfi is an LA based image editor that provides designers with AI-native design, tools, and real-time collaboration. LEMMO | Seed | $10,000,000 - Lemmo is a smart electric light transportation service provider headquartered out of Berlin. Testsigma | Venture (unknown) | $8,200,000 - Californian Testsigma is a cloud-based continuous testing platform for Agile and DevOps teams. Parkable | Venture (unknown) | $6,143,371 - Parkable is a peer-to-peer community based mobile app to help drivers share, find and exchange street parking spots. Sloyd | Seed | $3,000,000 - Founded in Oslo, Norway, Sloyd is enabling creators to make 3D assets really fast and really easy. Congratulations to everyone involved! #venturecapital #vc #funding #industry40 #AI #NLP #machinelearning #industrialmanufacturing #autonomousvehicles

Cyber Security is on the up, with more funding meaning more growth. So what better time to add to our Cyber team... Welcome Anthony S., bringing 7+ years' experience hiring A-player GTM Cyber Security specialists. We're very excited to have you on board and look forward to watching you grow with us! Hiring or looking for your next position? Reach out to Anthony: 📩 anthony@usurpo.com ☎ +44 (0) 7837 770 072 #cybersecurity #cyberjobs #gtmstrategy

Thank you to everyone who takes the time to follow and engage with us. Next stop 100,000. Also, keep your eyes peeled for exciting news regarding Usurpo's growth... #executivesearch #saas #technology #digitalconsultancy #gotomarket #product

Thank you to everyone who takes the time to follow and engage with us. Next stop 100,000. Also, keep your eyes peeled for exciting news regarding Usurpo's growth... #executivesearch #saas #technology #digitalconsultancy #gotomarket #product

All things SaaS on this week's Funding Friday. With funding happening across the globe, from the US to India to Sweden to Canada - Congratulations to everyone involved below: Capchase | $105m | Debt Financing - New York-based a FinTech company that provides financial solutions to startups by allowing access to funds as they grow. daydream | $6.2m | Seed - Founded in San Francisco, Daydream Labs develops a SaaS platform that automates programmatic search engine optimisation from end to end. QA.tech | €3m | Seed - A SaaS platform for building the first Autonomous QA Tester, headquartered in Stockholm. FretBox | N/A | Seed - A SaaS virtual assistant platform for residential/hostel communities and service apartments based in Pune, India. Blackline Safety | CA$23m | Post-IPO Equity - Calgary business Blackline Safety are a global leader in connected safety technology with a hardware-enabled SaaS (HeSaaS) business model. Simr (formerly UberCloud) | $20m | Series A - Founded in LA, Simr automates and secures complex simulations, enhancing innovation and efficiency for industries like aerospace and automotive. BlackLine | $600m | Post-IPO Debt - Also founded in California, BlackLine offers scalable applications that automate the financial close and other accounting processes. Teal | $8m | Seed - Based in Vancouver, Teal helps SMB software companies build accounting products for their customers. ActiveNav | £6.3m | N/A - Back to the US, Virginia's ActiveNav is the data privacy and governance software provider and innovator of DMaaS (Data Mapping as a Service.) Hefring Marine | €2.2m | N/A - An Icelandic deep-tech company building AI to enhance fuel efficiency, reduce carbon emissions and improve safety for boat operations. Credit: Crunchbase for the insight. #funding #saas #recruitment #gotomarket

Imagine a world where the way we design and produce items – from headphones to bicycles – has been completely revolutionised. In this world: - Artificial intelligence (AI) generates innovative design ideas, speeds up product development, and allows machines to learn and adapt. - Companies prioritise sustainability in both products and processes. - Complete collaboration, from the design studio through to prototyping and manufacturing, minimises mistakes and reduces waste. You don’t have to imagine this because it’s the reality of Industry 4.0 – and it’s happening now. The design and manufacturing industry is advancing rapidly, gaining competitive advantages through data-driven decisions and automation. Factories are becoming “smarter,” optimising production, and reducing costs. Organisations are realising that sustainability must be a priority. AI is more than just a buzzword; it’s a strategic tool used from the design studio to the factory floor. Industry 4.0 has introduced a new era of smart manufacturing where connected teams and tools are indispensable, now more than ever and it won't stop... Usurpo partners with some of the most innovative brands across Industry 4.0. If your business is looking to hire sales, marketing, customer success, pre-sales, product or technical with proven track records in the space, get in touch with James Harrington. We specialise in finding the best talent in the market not just on the market. #industry40 #executivesearch #smartmanufacturing #artificialintelligence #digitaltwin

April Funding Round-Up The UK continued to lead Europe in early-stage funding, with France and Germany following in second and third place, respectively. British startups secured €314 million from VCs in April, a decrease from the €470 million raised in March. French startups attracted €272 million, down from March’s €301 million, while German startups raised €211 million, an increase from the €148 million they garnered in March. In terms of verticals, B2B SaaS, ClimateTech, and HealthTech were the top three, raising €345 million, €333 million, and €315 million, respectively. Within HealthTech, drug discovery and biotech led the sectors, pulling in €138 million and €135 million, followed by digital lending with €79 million. The most active investors in April were Y Combinator, Antler, and Bpifrance. For Usurpo's clients... Enterprise Software Sales and customer service tech, particularly AI-driven improvements, emerged as significant themes this year. Madrid-based Indigitall raised a €6 million Series A from Data Point Capital, GoHub Ventures, and Adara Ventures. Their AI-driven SaaS platform enables businesses to engage clients across digital channels, tailoring messages for different demographics. Stuttgart's Markt-Pilot, a pricing platform for machine manufacturers’ spare parts, secured a €40 million Series A from Insight Partners and Capnamic Ventures. London-based Swap Commerce raised €9 million from Cherry Ventures, QED Investors, and others, offering a tech stack for e-commerce logistics, returns, and inventory management. FinTech Berlin's Finmid, which provides deferred payment options, credit lines, and cash advances to businesses, raised a €35 million Series A from Blossom Capital, Earlybird VC, and N26 Co-Founder Max Tayenthal. Following the US approval of a bitcoin ETF earlier this year, investor interest in Crypto and Decentralised Finance remained high, contributing 15 of the 58 fintech rounds in April. Swiss startup Wisdomise, an AI-driven crypto investments platform, raised $9.5 million from Chainlink Labs, SingularityDAO, and others. In London, X10 Exchange, founded by ex-Revolut employees, secured $6.5 million from Tioga Capital, Semantic Ventures, and others. Summary April saw a slight slowdown in early-stage dealmaking across Europe. VCs invested €1.4 billion across 312 pre-seed, seed, and Series A rounds, down from March's €1.5 billion across 381 rounds. Nonetheless, deal activity remains robust! #venturecapital #funding #fintech #enterprisesoftware #recruitment