Wonderflow, the European big data company — that helps companies by implementing their AI technology to analyse consumer feedback in electronics, HR, financial services and more — recently closed a £1.8 million investment.
The round was led by the manager of Venture Capital P101 SGR, through its P102 and ITALIA 500 sibling funds. The operation saw the participation of the European organisation for innovation – EIT Digital and Jan Bennink, a Dutch serial entrepreneur with a long experience as management executive of companies including Danone, Numico, Douwe Egberts, Sara Lee. He’s also a member of the board of directors of companies such as Coca Cola, Kraft, Boots, and with this operation becomes part of the Wonderflow board.
Funding during pandemic
Wonderflow is led by Italian CEO Riccardo Osti and based in Amsterdam, Trento and Milan. In 2019, Wonderflow was one of the prize winners of the European scaleup competition, EIT Digital Challenge.
Speaking about the recent funding round to UKTN, Riccardo Osti says, “We were not planning to raise money this year. However, we received many requests from customers that had to digitise much faster than expected, and in order to serve them, we decided to raise this round. On top of it, in this round, we welcomed Jan Bennink as an investor. Jan is one of the most iconic Dutch CEOs of the last decade, and it was an amazing opportunity for me to have him with us.”
On asking how did they manage to score funding during the ongoing pandemic, Osti says, “Raising during COVID was not so difficult, I had to say no to other two-three investors, as we didn’t want to raise more at this point.”
He adds, “I think it’s important to have your existing investors to follow on, as this is good signalling for others. Luckily, we could count on great “old” investors.”
Ropes in most iconic Dutch CEOs of last decade
Founded in 2013 by Giovanni Gaglione, Michele Ruini, and Riccardo Osti, Wonderflow has raised totally around £3.8 million funding so far.
In the official company press release, Jan Bennin said, “Bringing Wonderflow on board can truly help them increase customer knowledge by integrating feedback into their business processes and capitalising on a strong understanding of consumer needs and desires. This is why I am delighted to support the Wonderflow team in order to improve the company’s competitive advantage further,” says Jan Bennink.
Adding to the same, Giuseppe Donvito, Partner of P101 SGR said, “For any brand, it is important to get to know its consumer in depth, understand their needs and anticipate their needs, especially in a global market. Thanks to AI, it is now possible to quickly collect and analyse a quantity of data never seen before, feedback, comments, online conversations that can be tracked and integrated to develop a clear vision not only of the degree of customer satisfaction but also of his loyalty and of the margins of implementation of a service or product. Wonderflow is a leader in this area and with this second round it will be able to continue its growth, driven by an ever-increasing demand for prompt and rapid customer insights from companies.”
Born in 2013 and founded by Andrea Di Camillo, P101 SGR is one of the leading venture capital fund managers in Italy, specialising in investments in innovative and technology-driven companies in Europe.
US expansion on cards
With the latest funding, the customer feedback analysis startup plans to consolidate its positioning in Europe and expand its commercial network, to respond to the ever-increasing demand for customer feedback services.
Osti says, “We have developed the world’s first predictive engine based on the Voice of the Customer. Basically, we can tell brands what exactly to improve to generate an increase in their revenue or customer satisfaction / Net promoter score. In this way, they can always make the right decisions and win the competition. We believe this unique technology would help us differentiate and conquer more and more customers in the EU first, and the USA right after.”
On asking further to detail on the US expansion plans in 2021, Osti confirms and says, “Yes, we will. We do have customers there already, even if it was not our focus. COVID-19 helped in this case because it shortened distances and I feel this more digital approach will stay even once this is over.”
Wonderflow enables companies to extract actionable insights from unstructured consumer feedback data. It collects customer’s feedback from the public and private sources in multiple languages and employs its technology that is based on AI and Natural Language Processing for automatic reading and interpretation. It then pulls out actionable insights from the data that are published on the service’s dashboard for easy accessibility.
This year, they also opened a new office in Milan, Italy and also partnered with Microsoft to announce the integration of Wonderflow technology into Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Voice. To support companies during the COVID-19 outbreak, Wonderflow created Wonderwork: an Employee Feedback Analysis Powered by Artificial Intelligence.
The post “Raising during COVID was not so difficult, I had to say no to other 2-3 investors” — Riccardo Osti, CEO, Wonderflow appeared first on UKTN (UK Tech News).
