Amsterdam-based Expertwired, a 1-on-1 video consultation firm that connects industry experts to support decision-making, announced on Tuesday that it has raised close to €1M in its second round of funding.
The company says that the funds will help scale its tech-driven industry expert sourcing & matching platform as it aims to disrupt the global market research industry.
Investors in this round
The round was led by Pop Up Qapital. Launched in early 2022 by Quintin Schevernels, Pop Up Qapital represents a group of seasoned entrepreneurs who are experienced and familiar with marketplaces and SaaS models and aim to finance and support early-stage startups. The firm handpicks relevant angel investors from its network for every single investment. The fund’s investment strategy is mainly focused on SaaS or marketplace startups from the Netherlands.
Quintin Schevernels says, “The vision of Expertwired’s founders and their ability to develop and launch their impressive technology and platform in such a short time with strong customer traction, quickly convinced us to invest. We believe Expertwired has the potential to redesign the customer experience for market research on a global scale.”
Besides Pop Up Qapital, other individual angels in this investment include Jurgen van Dijk and Ruud van Hoek, founders of Stepstone Corporate Finance; Patrick Stal, ex-N26, Uber, TomTom; and, continued participation from existing investor MB Capital.
Expertwired was in the pre-Seed stage funded by MB Capital. The firm was launched in early 2021 as a family office led by founder Mathijs Bakker.
“Industry experts at your fingertips”
Launched in mid-2021 by Reinier Huisman, Expertwired has developed a sourcing and matching technology that provides access to millions of industry experts worldwide. The company connects market research firms, in-house consulting teams, investment advisors and many more seeking real-time market intelligence to industry experts.
Expertwired’s platform helps users pay for 1:1 video consultations with these experts, and claims to deliver higher quality matches at lower costs than incumbent industry players. The platform supports the full expert seeking journey: from scheduling interviews through different time zones to payment to experts, and provides a safe, compliant environment for knowledge sharing.
Currently, traditional networks easily charge clients more than €1,000 per expert interview and pay only around €200 to the experts. However, on Expertwired’s platform, a user can search, select, and book pre-vetted and screened experts at on average 50 per cent of the costs of traditional networks.
According to Expertwired’s CEO and founder, Reinier Huisman, “Expertwired pays out experts on average €400 per interview, but experts always choose their own rate. This makes Expertwired the highest paying platform for experts globally, while clients – who pay a mark-up of 20 per cent platform fee – are always better off than through alternative ‘low-tech’ networks.”
“To experts, it’s not all about earnings. We’ve built our technology in such a way that experts onboard in minutes and determine their own hourly rate. We pre-fill their professional experience automatically and enable them to accept or decline incoming opportunities in a few clicks. Straightforward and easy,” adds Huisman.
Currently, the platform is active in over 18 countries and serves clients such as KPMG, PwC, Deloitte, and EY, many private equity firms, large corporations such as HP, Philips, research firms including Frost & Sullivan, and Universities like Harvard.
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