— By Felipe Ávila da Costa, CEO at Infraspeak.
When a product and a company have the power to transform the lives of billions, growth becomes a natural progression.
We’re delighted to share that Infraspeak has reached another significant milestone in our journey towards becoming the global category leader in facilities and maintenance management software — as we successfully completed an extension of our Series A funding round to a total of 17.5 million euros.
Back in October 2021, Infraspeak raised an already impressive 10 million euros in a Series A round meant to consolidate and expand our presence within the European market. This round was led by Indico Capital Partners and Knight Capital, along with our previous investors, Caixa Capital and Innovation Nest.
We used that additional funding to hire top talent, expand to new markets such as France and Denmark, develop and launch the Infraspeak Network™, and scale our sales and customer success organisations like never before, adding more and bigger customers to our community.
Building on this momentum, we’ve now raised an additional €7.5M, led by Bright Pixel Capital, and supported by Caixa Capital and 500 Global, to fuel our fast growth and allow Infraspeak to keep innovating and changing the FM and maintenance markets for good.
The opportunity to collaborate with Bright Pixel Capital — while postponing a more time-demanding Series B fundraising process to 2024 — was incredibly attractive to us, as it will allow us to leverage the experience, specialised know-how, and global footprint of our new partner, while continuing to drive our accelerated growth trajectory, undisrupted.
What will be the impact of this new funding?
The impact will be massive, as this new funding will have a profound effect on multiple aspects of our operation, from our product to our team, our customers, and even to the FM and maintenance community.
The impact on our product
Since our Series A, Infraspeak’s product development has been focused on three core platform capabilities — collaboration, intelligence, and usability.
First of all, and given that collaboration is the keyword for maintenance and FM right now, the resources of this extension will help further develop the Infraspeak Network™, a one-of-a-kind capability in the market that allows for seamless collaboration between facilities managers and service providers, from quote request and submission to job attribution and completion.
Infraspeak Gear™, the intelligent core at the centre of our platform, will get more and more powerful. With an ever-increasing number of automations (more than 20 million, by the time these words were written) and AI-enabled features (hello, Generative AI!), it plays a crucial role in our customers by saving the average facilities manager up to 7 hours a week in admin work and helping them make better strategic decisions.
We are cooking a new product — more news about it soon! —, new languages will be made available to our growing customer base around the world, and many features are lined up in the roadmap, so expect nothing short of amazing releases in the months to come.
And because simplicity is key — we’ve been saying so for ages — we’ll also continue to make our platform as user-friendly as it gets, with features and apps such as the recently launched Infraspeak Next™ for Android and iOS.
The impact on our customers and partners’ network
On top of the continuous platform improvements, we are committed to providing an even higher level of professional services, such as platform implementation and customer support, which will better fulfil the higher demands from our growing base of enterprise customers with complex operations.
As part of our expansion strategy, we are now present in new markets in Europe, including France and Denmark, as well as expanding further in Latin America, with a special focus on Ecuador and Peru. And speaking of expansion — given the strategic importance of forging partnerships with key players in the industry, we intend to keep growing our partner network as well.
The impact on our team
The Infraspeak team, also known as “Infraspeakers”, and our unique culture are our greatest assets.
We understand the critical role that a highly skilled and motivated team plays in fueling our global expansion, and this funding round enables us to further invest in building the right team for the challenges ahead.
That said, we are happy to announce and highlight 5 key hires that are joining our team now: Ash Dharmakirthi (Ex-Seismic, Docusign, Symantec) as Regional Sales Manager for the UK & Ireland; Britt Schimmel (Ex-Pleo, Booking.com) as Sales Enablement Manager; Mireia Palmero (Ex-Productsup, Meta) as Solution Advisor EMEA; Nic Cooper (Ex-Trustpilot, Living Social) as Head of Sales Development; and Oriane Millet (Ex-Expertlead, GP Bullhound, Goldman Sachs) as Chief Financial Officer.
And we are not only actively recruiting A-players to help fuel our expansion to new markets and improve our overall performance. We are also providing the team with a comprehensive set of tools for development and growth, such as a leadership program and the Infraspeak University, which allows us to keep promoting from within — we are dedicated to fostering a world-class culture that empowers employees to excel and deliver exceptional results.
The impact on the community
Last but not least, something that we’re very fond of.
We will continue to develop the Intelligence for Maintenance (IFM) community and all initiatives associated with it — like the global Intelligence for Maintenance Tour. Our goal is to give back to the FM and maintenance professionals by providing the right time, place, content and environment for discussion and networking — be it face-to-face or online. This, we believe, is crucial for the continuous evolution of the sector when it comes to subjects such as technology, collaboration, and sustainability.
Speaking of which, we remain steadfast in our commitment to social and environmental impact, placing sustainability at the forefront of our operations and our product usage. As an example, at the time of writing of this announcement, 231 different companies are using our Utilities app to monitor and optimise energy consumption, while many others are getting their B Corp and similar certifications with the help of our platform.
As we advocate for real impact and real numbers (our fight against green-washing is here to stay), here are some real numbers for you: Opertec Facilities Management has recently reported saving over 500 thousand sheets of paper, 56 trees, 696 kg of CO2 emissions, and 5.5 million litres of water by managing their operations with Infraspeak.
And they are not alone. Can you imagine the impact of our platform across the globe through all our current and future customers?
We are only 1% done.
Infraspeak’s relentless pursuit of excellence has positioned us as category leaders in Europe — with a strong presence in the UK, Spain, France, Denmark, and Portugal — and in Latin America through Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, and 10 other countries.
Over 180 thousand buildings and 3 million assets are currently being managed with Infraspeak, and we’ve more than doubled the number of new companies using our platform in the first half of 2023.
While we celebrate our achievements thus far (why wouldn’t we?), we remain acutely aware that we are only 1% done.
We have much more to accomplish, and our vision extends beyond our current deeds. We sincerely thank our investors for their unwavering belief, our partners for their invaluable support, and our customers for their trust and loyalty. To the world-class team at Infraspeak, your dedication and passion are the driving force behind our success.
Together, we will continue to strive towards our vision, embracing the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead, knowing that the road to success will never be a sprint, always a marathon.