Communication is one of the most crucial pillars of modern-day society without which, most things we see today wouldn’t be possible. Large companies purchase certain tools to enable better communication and collaboration between employees. However, internal communication is still something that needs to be worked upon. Intranet is one of the best ways to relay information quickly and efficiently to employees. However, this method of communication hasn’t really taken off.
Enter Finland-based startup Happeo. The company enables better communication and information flow inside the company with the help of its social intranet platform. The service also solves the age-old problem of low usage rates.
Intranet champion Happeo raises €11 million in series A funding
Making inroads into its principle of disrupting the intranet industry, Happeo has raised almost €11 million ($12M) in its series A round of funding. The funding round was led by INKEF Capital and Happeo’s previous investors DN Capital, Maki.vc and Vendep Capital also joined the round. The fresh funds will enable the company to accelerate the development of its products and expand teams in the Netherlands, Finland, Romania and the United States.
Speaking exclusively to Silicon Canals – Perttu Ojansuu, founder and CEO, Happeo, says, “We want to change the way companies communicate – all across the globe. After starting in Europe, we grew quickly both in Europe as well as the North American market, which is now our biggest growth market. We plan to open offices there soon and grow our team of developers in both Finland and Romania. Next up will be the APAC market, from which we’ve already seen strong demand, since we recently signed The World Wildlife Fund in Singapore, and are talking to several other exciting prospects.”
Happeo intranet: A game changer
Happeo was launched by the renowned Gapps team in 2016, which was launched in 2010 by Perttu Ojansuu, Vesa Sironen and Antero Hanhirova. The company and the product started out with the name Universe and was rebranded to Happeo in 2018. While the startup is based out of Helsinki, Finland, it also has another European hub in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
One of the key features offered by Happeo is its deep integration with some of the leading workplace-communication tools such as Slack and G Suite so that users can work within the intranet environment. Happeo’s service also tackles low usage rates, which is one of the most common intranet problems. The platform that speaks for itself with the outstanding usage metrics. The high Daily Active Use to Monthly Active Use ratio average for Happeo lingers around 50%, which is commendable.
Daily messaging on the platform has also increased considerably from 500,000 to over 2.5 million in Q1 this year, as companies worldwide implemented work from home.
Kyang Yung, Director at INKEF Capital says; “From the first moment that we met the Happeo team, we have been blown away by their drive to disrupt the intranet industry. Happeo has been able to deliver usage metrics which are truly unrivalled in the space. We look forward to working with this team of seasoned operators and supporting them in leading the way to a new kind of social intranet.”
Covid-19 and the need for empathy
It’s no surprise that the whole situation with the coronavirus has impacted numerous businesses. Happeo dealt with the issue with empathy and did everything possible to ensure the safety of its employees early on. “Remote working is in our DNA since Happeo allows companies to work and communicate from anywhere in the world. True to that, our entire company has been working remotely since March, and business continuity wasn’t affected in the slightest. Happeo firmly believes that remote work will become the new normal in the post-pandemic world.” says Ojansuu.
Creating jobs to accelerate product development
Every great product or service stems from the belief of solving problems. This belief is held by Happeo too, which focuses on creating products based on not only their vision but also for their customers. A product board is available for all their customers and they can vote on features and recommend their own. There’s also an in-house Customer Success team who are directly in contact with the product team to channel feedback and suggestions.
Adding more to the topic, Ojansuu says, “Furthermore, we will increase headcount. Recently we hired new developer talent in Finland and Romania and we will continue to hire until further notice. Luckily we already have a very special bond with Romania, as one our lead developers have always been based there. She will be in charge of expanding our developer team there. Meanwhile, our CPO will oversee the expansion of developers in Finland, while Lidia Luttin, our CMO, and myself will focus on expanding our business operations base in the form of Sales, Marketing and Customer Success.”
In order to accelerate the development of its product, Happeo will continue with its hiring process. “We believe it’s important to continue hiring during these times. In fact, we are ramping up the hiring process at the moment by focusing on hiring developers in Finland and Romania, and are also further expanding our business operations by hiring Senior Sales Executives and SDRs in the United States and the Netherlands. There are also other vacancies open at our Careers page.” states Ojansuu.
Zoom integration is coming soon
Happeo is one of the few providers that offers complete integration with third-party tools, such as G Suite. This enables its customers to edit Docs, Sheets and other G Suite file types directly within the platform and everything is stored in Google Drive. This makes it really convenient for users to absorb knowledge on the internet and get into the workflow with the tools already in place.
The current situation has seen a rise in video conferencing apps. To deliver the experience one needs, Happeo will soon introduce Zoom integration within its ecosystem. Ojansuu says, “We want every integration to be within the platform itself, wherever possible. This offers one seamless experience, rather than a series of redirects to different windows and applications. That’s why we’ve created one holistic center for all communication within a company. Happeo, with its deep G Suite integrations, fulfils 90% of that requirement currently. The other 10% comes from integrating with incredibly popular tools such as Zoom.”
Image credits: Happeo
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