Dutch channel SaaS startup Channext raises €700K for its Seed round; looks to enter Italy, the Nordics, and Spain

Utrecht, Netherlands-based Channext is a SaaS platform that creates real-time connections with the websites, social media profiles, advertising accounts & CRMs of your resellers. It claims to onboard resellers that guarantee marketing campaign reach and gives them the opportunity to opt-out or personalise content.

In a recent development, the company announced that it has raised €450K in an extension to its previous Seed round, closing the total at €700K from all of its existing shareholders. The company had raised €250K earlier this year in March through informal investors with experience in IT and the platform economy.

Use of the funds

Channext will use proceeds from this round to accelerate their European expansion to markets like Italy, the Nordics, and Spain.

Rick van den Bosch, CEO of Channext, says, “This funding will be used to ramp up our hiring and expand to other European markets. I’m very grateful for the trust of our  investors in joining us on our exciting journey. We want to become the world’s leading company in channel software. After we have expanded our footprint to the rest of Europe, we plan to make the jump to the US.”

Speaking about the growth, Van den Bosch further adds, “Despite the difficult conditions of growing a startup during a pandemic, the last twelve months have shown tremendous growth for our company. We have landed multiple dream customers, grew our team from 6 to 24 employees, and expanded our business to France, Germany, and UK&I.”

Channext’s mission

Founded in 2018 by Rick van den Bosch, Channext aims to reshape the way ICT vendors like Cisco, Fujitsu, and Logitech go to market with their indirect channel of B2B resellers.

According to Channext, despite billions of dollars being allocated for channel marketing every year, there’s little to no insight in the results and ROI of these budgets. Brands are frustrated that their well-invested marketing & product content doesn’t reach the end customer of their resellers. This is where Channext looks to make a difference. 

Channext believes the biggest challenge in indirect channels is that, less than 15 per cent of vendor marketing activities reach the end customer through their resellers. And hence, the company has developed a through-channel marketing platform, which creates a real-time connection between vendors and the marketing channels of their resellers. This enables the company to automate the process of launching marketing campaigns to the reseller websites, social media profiles, and online advertising accounts.

Channext’s platform automatically retrieves the data of reseller marketing channels to create a dashboard that provides insight into important channel sales and marketing KPIs such as total reach, interaction with end customers, and generated leads.

Currently, 17 vendors have implemented the Channext platform to provide their resellers with scalable and measurable through-channel marketing campaigns, and more than 500 resellers have connected their marketing channels to the platform. The services are currently active in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, France, and the UK.

Who is Marcel van de Gender?

Earlier in March 2021, Channext strengthened its commercial ambitions by adding Marcel van de Gender to the team. He will be carrying the role of VP Customer Expansion. With his experience, Gender looks to further expand the EMEA market for the Utrecht based scale-up.

Channext CCO Hennie Jansen says, “We have built up the necessary experience within the Benelux. And with Marcel, we’re bringing in a heavyweight through which we can realise our EMEA ambitions. He is someone who knows the channel inside out and can therefore perfectly support global players within ICT, to ensure that their business partners perform optimally in sales and marketing.”

Van de Gender was previously very successful at Dropbox as Head of Channel Sales Benelux. In 2017, he was even nominated for the “Channel Manager of the Year” award for his contribution to the sales and marketing growth of the cloud storage service. Prior to that, Van de Gender made his mark at Microsoft, where he held various partner-related positions. Besides, he also has experienced several transitions at renowned companies such as Fujitsu, Dell, and Escom.

Relocating its headquarters

Channext has also announced that it will be relocating its headquarters. Its new office is in the revamped Le Mirage building, Vliegend Hertlaan 65-67, located near Utrecht Central station. Due to the rapid expansion of their team, more space was required. “Our team is looking forward to coming together at our new office, which occupies an entire floor,” says Rick van den Bosch.