NumberFour, founded in 2009 by former senior Yahoo executive Marco Boerries in Berlin to re-engineer small business processes, has secured an enormous $38 million in Series A financing led by Mike Volpi from Index Ventures. Participating in the round is Allen&Co, T-Venture/Deutsche Telekom, Andreas von Bechtolsheim, former Yahoo founder Jerry Yang, Klaus Hommels and Lars Hinrichs among others. Unusually, the company has remained almost completely quiet since its foundation. It will obviously compete against a number of players, not least Salesforce among them.
In addition, its business platform and apps are not yet publicly available. The company said “an announcement will follow at an appropriate time.”
NumberFour has a platform that provides productivity, communication, sales, production, procurement, delivery, reservation and financial tools for offline and online businesses. Boerries’ vision is that in the future most small businesses should have the efficiencies and scale effects that large enterprises enjoy.
Founded in 2009 by Boerries, the startup is producing apps on smartphones, tablets and PCs. It has offices in Berlin, Hamburg, Germany and Palo Alto, California.
In statements, Boerries said: “I deeply care about enabling small businesses to become more competitive and successful. Having started four businesses myself, I know how hard and rewarding it can be at the same time. Small is beautiful!”
Mike Volpi, Partner, Index Ventures said: “From a technology perspective, small businesses are the most underserved market in the world. NumberFour is the first comprehensive business platform that offers amazing technology, wrapped in apps with a stunningly simple user interface.”
Klaus Hommels an investor in NumberFour said: “NumberFour combines huge market potential, scale effects and passion – paired with the powerful and meticulous leadership of one of the best and most experienced entrepreneurs. It is a truly special opportunity.”
Lars Hinrichs, Founder of XING and investor stated, “NumberFour has the potential to become the leader for small business software, a multi-billion opportunity. Marco is a successful serial entrepreneur and has proven multiple times that he can make big ideas work.”
