Danish startup Layerise has raised €1.1 million from German VC E.ventures, Falcon.io founder Ulrik Bo Larsen and Danish VC Heartcore.
Founded in 2019, Layerise fills the gap that exists between the end user and the manufacturer of physical products. It acts as a digital assistant for physical products, allowing the buyer to find deeper information about the product, be reminded of maintenance, confirm ownership of the product if it has been stolen, and much more.
Layerise is a white label solution, so manufacturers distribute their own branded version of the solution and the end user doesn’t necessarily see that the solution is built on Layerise’s platform. Examples of customer types include: electric bicycles, electric motorcycles, clothing brands, IoT brands, medical device brands.
The startup currently consist of founders Ervin Draganovic and Emil Forsmann, who have only been running Layerise for a year during their spare time alongside fulltime jobs. They have landed a handful of brand clients, and there are thousands of users on the solution already, including the Danish electric bicycle company Mate.bike.
Mate.bike use Layerise to keep in touch with and service the bike owners, and the app is both an easy-to-understand manual and channel for customer service when the customer gets the bike delivered. Several thousand Mate.bikes have been registered, and the app has so far helped at least 25 stolen bikes back to the owner.
Julie Kronstrøm Carton, CEO and co-founder of Mate.bike, said: “We get a much more active dialogue with our customers through Layerise. At the same time, we can see what questions people have and what they spend the most time on. This means that we can improve the user manual and communication to our customers. It is clearly more engaging to the user than a regular manual or instructional video.”
With the new funds, Ervin Draganovic and Emil Forsmann now can dedicate everything to the project and take it to the next level. Next step is to staff their sales, delivery and product development.
Ervin Draganovic, CEO of Layerise, said: “We were a bit unsure about how to raise money when it happened during a global pandemic, but we have experienced great interest. We have been looking for “smart money”, because the investors we get on board now, we have to be with for a very long time, so it has been important that they could contribute to all of our growth trajectory. We are sure that we have achieved this with this group of strong investors.”
With this round, Ulrik Bo Larsen (CEO and co-founder of Falcon.io, which was acquired by Cision for around €100 million a year and half ago0, invests and takes the seat as chairman of Layerise. Ulrik Bo Larsen said: “I got a deja vu for my own early journey with Falcon.io when I heard about Layerise. Like Falcon.io, they link things that are not linked today. It is a whole new category and no one knows exactly where this will end, but there is a huge potential. Ervin and Emil are both extremely savvy and I am impressed with their vision and the customers they have gained and the product they have built in a very short time without funding. ”
Jonathan Becker from German e.ventures said: “We firmly believe that companies need to step up their game in creating a great user experience, even after a product is sold. When I first met Ervin and Emil I was very impressed with their vision of redefining how brands interact with their customers driven by a beautifully designed product. I’m really happy they chose e.ventures over the many other investors who knocked on their door.”
