September 21, 2024

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Microsoft purchased and close down this entrepreneur’s app. However now he is raised cash for an unofficial successor

Wunderlist co-founder Christian Reber

Pitch

German entrepreneur Christian Reber bought his to-do listing app Wunderlist to Microsoft in 2015 for a sum that used to be reported to be between $100 million and $200 million handiest to observe the U.S. tech large close it down 4 years later.

Now he is simply raised investment for a follow-on app known as Superlist, which he is arrange with 4 different marketers together with two of the opposite Wunderlist co-founders.

Reber informed CNBC previous this 12 months that the Wunderlist acquisition left him feeling “truly unsatisfied” and frustrated. Some of the primary causes Reber used to be so annoyed when Microsoft close down Wunderlist is as a result of he felt that the app by no means changed into the product he sought after to construct.

He did not surrender there although. In 2021, he introduced Superlist, which he describes because the “unofficial successor to Wunderlist” and a “hobby venture.”

Superlist is a job and venture control app that goals to lend a hand other people collaborate in a hybrid-working international. It is these days nonetheless in the second one segment of its unencumber lifestyles cycle.

“What we would have liked to do used to be construct the de facto usual utility to collaborate on private tasks and in industry,” Reber informed CNBC previous this 12 months, including that there are both undertaking merchandise like Asana and Trello or private to-do listing apps like Issues or To Do.

“I believe like not anything truly nailed the bridge between each,” he mentioned. “You both get like very cluttered tool this is principally optimized for venture managers, otherwise you get like those very private to-do apps that make it not possible to collaborate.”

Superlist is designed to lend a hand customers scale a venture from one particular person to 100 or 200 other people.

The Berlin-headquartered corporate introduced Monday that it has secured 10 million euros ($11 million) in a seed investment spherical led by means of project capital company EQT Ventures. Overall funding within the corporate now stands at 13.5 million euros.

“The worldwide productiveness control tool marketplace is projected to achieve $102.98 billion by means of 2027, so there’s actual alternative for a device that harnesses workforce individuals’ individuality and focuses in particular at the demanding situations of the trendy administrative center,” mentioned EQT Ventures spouse Ted Persson in a remark.

Superlist mentioned it is going to use the brand new investment to double the dimensions of its workforce from 20 to 40 by means of the top of 2022, with a focal point on hiring builders, designers and product leads.

Along with Superlist, Reber has additionally co-founded a Microsoft PowerPoint competitor known as Pitch. The four-year-old industry, which employs round 160 other people, has raised a bit over $130 million and it used to be maximum just lately valued at $600 million.

“I believe it is extremely simple to boost investment for era firms at this time as a result of it is like there is more cash than firms in the marketplace,” Reber mentioned. “As a founder who’s beginning firms extra ceaselessly, I believe find it irresistible’s by no means been higher to boost.”