Q -Baufi24's first institutional investors were the Helvetia Venture Fund and btov private investors . What were the advantages of working with the btov community?
A -Tomas: I got to know Helvetia and btov Partners through a former business partner who also had btov as investors, he was very positive and told me that they would understand our business model very easily, given their experience with Moneypark, Finanzcheck, Raisin and Pricehubble.
I had great exchanges with several direct investors from the btov investor community, first through Michael Wieser on behalf of Helvetia, and then Camilla von Gayl and yourself. Two examples stand out: Thanks to btov we got connected to the Google Accelerator program, which helped us to further improve our approach. You also supported our convertible after two difficult sales months and helped support the latest funding round, as well as our discussions to create Bilthouse, where Michael Wieser from the Helvetia Venture Fund played a significant role.
Martin: Being able to leverage btov reduces a lot of friction for me, they have very good, streamlined processes that reduce the admin. I do direct investments on my own too, through my own network, but it is more cumbersome. Plus you get to see more dealflow, in a more systematic way, and have conversations with people who have real industry expertise. It’s less opportunistic. I really enjoy working with btov in that regard.
Q -The Series A, totaling ca. EUR 7 million, took place roughly a year ago. What has happened over the last year?
A -Tomas: We achieved our revenue growth targets and massively increased our transaction volume. We also doubled our technical staff, which helped us develop our technical integrations across the banking sector.
Martin: I had Thomas and his team on my radar for a while, they have deep experience in this field and the right vision, so I’m not at all surprised that they have been able to execute on this.