Miro is#nbsp;a#nbsp;company in#nbsp;the right place at#nbsp;the right time. The makers of#nbsp;a#nbsp;digital whiteboard are seeing usage surge right now as#nbsp;businesses move from the workplace and physical whiteboards. Today, the company announced a#nbsp;hefty $#nbsp;50 million Series B.
Iconiq Capital led the round with help from Accel and a#nbsp;slew of#nbsp;individual investors. Today’s investment brings the total raised to#nbsp;around $#nbsp;75 million, according to#nbsp;the company. Among the company’s angel investors was basketball star Steph Curry, and Dutch investor Bas Godska, one of#nbsp;the most prolific Western investors in#nbsp;Eastern Europe.
What’s attracting this level of#nbsp;investment is#nbsp;that this is#nbsp;a#nbsp;product made for a#nbsp;moment when workers are forced to#nbsp;stay home. One of#nbsp;the primary complaints about working at#nbsp;home is#nbsp;the inability to#nbsp;sit in#nbsp;the same room with colleagues and brainstorm around a#nbsp;whiteboard. This reproduces that to#nbsp;an#nbsp;extent.
What’s more, Miro isn’t simply light-weight add-in like you might find built into a#nbsp;collaboration tool like Zoom or#nbsp;Microsoft Teams; it’s more of a#nbsp;platform play designed to#nbsp;integrate with many different enterprise tools, much like Slack does for communications.
Miro co-founder and CEO Andrey Khusid said the company planned the platform idea from its earliest days. "The concept from day one was building something for real-time collaboration and the platform thing is#nbsp;very important because we#nbsp;expect that people will build on#nbsp;top of#nbsp;our product," Khusid told TechCrunch.
That means that people can build integrations to#nbsp;other common tools and customize the base tool to#nbsp;meet the needs of#nbsp;an#nbsp;individual team or#nbsp;organization. It’s an#nbsp;approach that seems to#nbsp;be#nbsp;working as#nbsp;the company reports it’s profitable with more than 21,000 customers including 80% of#nbsp;the Fortune 100. Customers include Netflix, Salesforce, PwC, Spotify, Expedia and Deloitte.
Khusid says usage has been skyrocketing among both business and educational customers as#nbsp;the pandemic has forced millions of#nbsp;people to#nbsp;work at#nbsp;home. He#nbsp;says that has been a#nbsp;challenge for his engineering team to#nbsp;keep up#nbsp;with the demand, but one that the company has been able to#nbsp;meet to#nbsp;this point.
The startup just passed the 300 employee mark this week, and it#nbsp;will continue to#nbsp;hire with this new influx of#nbsp;money. Khusid expects to#nbsp;have another 150 employees before the end of#nbsp;the year to#nbsp;keep up#nbsp;with increasing demand for the product.
"We understand that we#nbsp;need to#nbsp;come out strong from this situation. The company is#nbsp;growing much faster than we#nbsp;expected, so#nbsp;we#nbsp;need to#nbsp;have a#nbsp;very strong team to#nbsp;maintain the growth at#nbsp;the same pace after the crisis ends."
Published by TechCrunch—#nbsp;on#nbsp;April 23, 2020