Cello, a Munich, Germany-based startup incentivizing Software-as-a-Service referrals, raised $3.5 million in funding.
The pre-empted seed funding round was led by German investor HV Capital, with participation from angel operators such as Allison Pickens (dbt), Phillip Chambers (Workday), Julius Göllner (ARRtist), Patrick Andrae (HomeToGo), and more.
The startup aims to incentivize peer recommendations to drive growth in sales of Software-as-a-Service products. The company wants referrals to help increase revenue in companies at a time when advertising costs have skyrocketed and tech growth is slowing.
"Peer recommendations and word-of-mouth have quietly become the facto way new software is discovered, more resembling dynamics we've traditionally seen in the consumer world," Cello cofounder and CEO Stefan Bader told Insider. "Having strong word-of-mouth is by far the most preferred way to grow a B2B company, but nothing really exists on the market that allows founders to seriously invest in growing it."
Cello makes it easy for customers to integrate a sharing option into their product. The startup's tech takes care of billing, payouts, and administration.
Company: Powerplay GmbH
Raised: $3.5M
Round: Seed Round
Funding Month: July 2023
Lead Investors: German investor HV Capital
Additional Investors: Allison Pickens, Phillip Chambers, Julius Göllner, Patrick Andrae, and more
Company Website: https://cello.so/
Software Category: User-Led Growth Platform
About the Company: Founded in 2022 by Robert Coletti and Stefan Bader, Cello provides a user-led growth platform that helps businesses to harness their most passionate users to drive word-of-mouth growth at scale. Its platform allows any SaaS product to be shared and discovered in only a few clicks. The company has around 15 employees currently and Cello counts high-growth SaaS companies like Personio, Superside, sevDesk, and tl;dv amongst its customers.
Source: https://www.businessinsider.com/cello-german-user-referral-startup-raises-pre-empted-35-million-2023-7