Productive Mobile raises a €3.4 million seed investment led by HV Holtzbrinck Ventures. In addition, Hans Georg Näder, bionics pioneer and owner of Ottobock, participated in the seed-round.
Founded in 2014 by serial entrepreneurs Yann Le Gouic, from France, and Anthony Hsiao, from Germany, the Berlin-based startup wants to become a leader in the nascent field of Human Process Augmentation (HPA). Its software makes humans more productive, by simplifying and automating manual tasks that still require human interaction. The seed investment will be used to accelerate the go-to-market activities of the company, to hire employees in Berlin and for ongoing product development.
The combination of automation and AI in the workforce is among the most discussed topics today. The field of Robotic Process Automation (RPA), where software robots replace humans to do repetitive tasks, is entering the mainstream at many companies.
Jasper Masemann, Principal at HV Holtzbrinck Ventures, stated: “We are impressed by the team and their product. Productive Mobile revolutionizes the way enterprise software workflows are built, optimized and automated because of its fast implementation and lower costs.”
Anthony Hsiao, co-founder and CEO of Productive Mobile, commented: “In the 21st century, automation will disrupt white collar work like it has disrupted blue collar work in the past. But rather than replacing humans, we want to augment them with smart technologies. People remain at the center of decision making. We are proud to be able to shape this future in the coming years, together with our new investors.”
The startup’s software enables customers to quickly design simple, modern and personalized applications, and easily connect them with a company’s existing IT applications and processes. As there is no direct adaptation of the existing IT infrastructure required, it is the fastest way to upgrade enterprise applications with an ergonomic user interface.
The twist: Productive Mobile uses software robots to connect to any application or workflow, which can also be used to automate steps or orchestrate different applications in the background. This enables them to simplify the lives of employees across a variety of use cases, ranging from approval processes in HR, work order systems in operations to workflows in procurement. The unique approach of combining the best of “Robotic Process Automation” with modern interface design tools already attracted some nice interest in the industry. Several large companies from the automotive, insurance, energy, high-tech and pharmaceutical industries are already using Productive Mobile to improve the way they work.
