In the latest development, Claap, an asynchronous meeting platform, has raised $3 million (approx £2.1 million) funding in the pre-seed round.
The funding was raised from LocalGlobe, Headline (former e.Ventures), and a group of 30 angels including, Front co-founder Mathilde Collin, Oyster co-founder Tony Jamous, Nest and GoCardless co-founder Matt Robinson, and Automattic’s head of product Aadil Mamujee.
The company will use the funding to develop the platform, which will offer remote workers flexibility and autonomy in how they work.
Asynchronous meeting platform
Founded by Robin Bonduelle and Pierre Touzeau, Claap is an asynchronous meeting platform created to replace back-to-back meetings with a new way to collect feedback and make decisions.
According to the company, asynchronous meetings give people unparalleled flexibility in how they work, rather than simply replacing the office with time stuck at a desk on a laptop.
Be it sharing a new idea or receiving feedback, asynchronous meetings allow people to work wherever, whenever, and however, they like.
Central space for feedback
The company’s platform allows employees to record a short video update on a topic, such as a product iteration, and feedback and set a due date for team members to respond. Colleagues can view the video and respond to the points in their own time.
Further, the platform allows teams to build in a high-level context on projects by creating a central space for feedback and iterations, keeping everyone up to date on developments.
How was Claap born?
Robin Bonduelle and Pierre Touzeau identified the problems caused by constant video meetings and recognised that a tech-enabled solution that encourages asynchronous communication could free people from their webcams.
However, it has its challenges like emails or slack messages often go unread and much more. So they decided to create a platform that overcame these challenges and enabled asynchronous communication for virtual teams.
A platform like Claap can power the shift to truly flexible work, enabling people to work from anywhere without having to rely on constant video meetings.
Robin Bonduelle, co-founder and CEO at Claap, said: “After a year of working remotely, people are realizing the benefits of not working in an office but at the same time grappling with one of its worst consequences: back-to-back video meetings. A query that in the office would take five minutes to solve now takes at least 30, leaving everyone more exhausted in the process. Claap is designed to solve this issue, allowing colleagues the tools to keep them engaged and connected but without taking up all their time. It’s a new meeting format that allows people to make quick decisions.”
Pierre Touzeau, co-founder and COO at Claap, said: “Meetings are a necessary part of working, but it doesn’t need to be your entire day. Asynchronous meetings are the key to freeing up our calendars but making sure work still gets done and deadlines are met. We’re excited by the potential Claap has to empower people to work from anywhere and we’re looking forward to working with our investors LocalGlobe and E.Ventures to make truly flexible work a reality.”
George Henry, General Partner at LocalGlobe, said: “Video collaboration tools have untethered us from the office but we’re still chained to our desks at home. We were impressed with Robin and Pierre’s vision and the potential for Claap to allow employees to connect on a project when they need to and facilitate the ability to work from anywhere. Remote work will still be a reality for many at the end of the pandemic and there is a need for intuitive platforms to facilitate truly flexible ways of working.”
Jonathan Userovici, Partner at Headline, said: “Zoom may have been the go-to enterprise app over the past 12 months but for the thousands of businesses that are now going to be remote-first, video conferencing alone won’t be enough to keep teams connected and get work done. Claap is the challenger tool to end video-calling fatigue and something we’ll all be thankful for in the coming months.”
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