Netherlands-based Secret View, a consulting agency that provides market research services, announced on Tuesday, December 13, that it has raised €1.5M in a Series A round of funding.
The funding was led by KIKK Capital, an investment firm that partners with startups to build strong, successful, and sustainable businesses. The firm also actively assists them in maximising and leveraging growth opportunities.
The round also saw participation from Oost NL, an East Netherlands Development Agency that helps local startups achieve sustainable growth, innovation, and internationalisation. The agency also acts as a bridge between the government, companies and knowledge institutes.
“Next level customer insights”
Founded in 2015 by Niek Koning, Secret View helps retail companies with ‘high-quality’ feedback based on actual customer experiences. Secret View’s goal is to transform the mystery shopping industry, which it claims hasn’t seen any innovation in years.
According to the company, conventional mystery shopping firms frequently use licensed software to provide outdated reports. However, Secret View allows for ongoing software optimisation and the provision of ‘best’ customer insights.
The mystery shopping community consists of regular consumers instead of professional mystery shoppers. These members offer detailed information based on first-hand experiences. Hence, retail businesses utilise the platform and community to collect honest, ‘high-quality’ client feedback. Currently, Secret View has over 50,000 mystery shoppers in 30 countries.
Insights from these mystery shoppers’ help businesses to enhance the customer experience, improve compliance, reinforce store operations, and raise sales performance. Some of Secret View’s clients include Albert Heijn, Dyson, Pathé Cinemas, Rituals Cosmetics, and SPAR.
Capital utilisation
Secret View, a profitable business, claims that it will use the funds to increase its marketing and sales team, speed up product development, and improve operations in order to maximise the value of research findings.
Founder Niek Koning says, “In recent years, we have been able to build an exceptional product and build a large and active international community of mystery shoppers. Through our success in building a 50,000+ mystery shopper community in over 30 countries, we have validated that our business model is incredibly scalable. The funding KIKK Capital and Oost NL bring will be used to take our solution to a larger and international audience.”
01
From port to startup fort: How Lars Crama is ‘Making it Happen’ in Rotterdam