Austrian startup Wowflow has just secured €1 million in Seed funding to supercharge how facility management teams work. The company has developed a work management and collaboration software that’s supporting one of Europe’s biggest workforces – and is now accelerating expansion plans.
Facility management is one of Europe’s biggest employers. Made up of workers such as cleaners and maintenance personnel, facility management represents a reported 10% of Europe’s workforce. These are workers who take care of our homes and offices, yet, the daily routine of these teams has yet to be optimised operationally.
Teams have noted how communication channels are overburdened, schedules are misaligned, and data is lost and improperly stored – to mention a few commonly-heard issues. Teams, basically, aren’t running smoothly and it means employer-employee relations are strained, deadlines are missed and budgets are impacted.
This is what Wowflow aims to change. The startup has developed a work management and collaboration software specifically for these teams and has now picked up additional investment.
The Funding
The Vienna-based company has just secured €1 million in Seed funding. It’s backed by prominent investors like Stefan Polletin (former Co-Founder of Casavi), Proptech Fund High Rise Ventures from Germany, Early-stage Fund Lemonade Stand from Estonia, Peter Steinberger (former Founder of PSPDFKit, Founders of Europe), and Rolf Adam (Senior Vice President of Hitachi Solutions Europe).
This new funding comes off the back of a €300k raise last year.
Wowflow – Redefining how facility management teams work
Founded in 2018 by Drazen Ivanis (CEO), Wowflow is on a mission to supercharge teams, optimising workflows and enhancing collaboration through a digital tool. Drazen himself worked as a facility manager in Vienna before founding the startup, his own frustrations giving him the push to launch a product that would change how things work for the better.
He explained: “I felt how complicated and thankless building maintenance is. You are constantly under the water with so many small things you need to keep track of. You have no idea whether workers or service providers do what they promised. And everyone keeps asking: why can’t you make it cheaper?”
Unlike other solutions on the market, Wowflow has a key focus on the user experience to ensure any field worker can easily adapt the tool without any training. Additionally, Wowflow allows managers to coordinate the work both between employees and external contractors flexibly. That enables facility managers to delegate more work and service providers to win more customers.
The young startup now has over 40 customers across 5 countries, proving particularly popular in the cleaning sector. As noted by Stefan Polletin, former CEO of Attensam Sbg/Ooe:
“Cleaning of the buildings is much more demanding these days. Customers expect better service with faster reaction times and a lower budget. Good employees are in short supply, especially during the COVID outbreaks. It is only a question of time when a solution that streamlines operation and brings transparency via work tracking and reporting will be an absolute necessity for facility management companies.”
According to Wowflow internal estimations, there are at least 600 thousand companies in Europe and US that are involved in building maintenance. These are mostly the regional companies with 10-250 employees that historically were either too small or not ready for software solutions that mostly catered to big enterprises – there’s clearly plenty of market potential for the team to tap into.
The fresh funds will be invested in market expansion, cementing Wowflow’s position as a leading work management & collaboration software for facility management teams in the DACH region. The focus is also on further improvements to the user experience for field workers, seamless multi-company collaboration, and integrations with existing Computer-Aided Facility Management and ERP software market leaders.
via https://www.AiUpNow.com
August 4, 2022 at 03:34AM by contact@bcurdy.com (Patricia Allen), Khareem Sudlow
