KOOS, an Estonian-based SaaS platform that enables businesses to grow with their community, turning stakeholders into co-owners, raised $4 million in a seed round.
European VC Plural led the round, with participation from investors including LocalGlobe, Tiny.vc, and Matt Clifford, co-founder of Entrepreneur First.
With this investment, KOOS plans to launch and build its presence in the UK and Europe.
Plural's investment comes with advisory support from its Estonian founders, and Plural Platform's partners, Taavet Hinrikus and Sten Tamkivi will join KOOS as advisors.
Taavi Kotka, Founder and CEO of KOOS, explained: "At KOOS we believe technologies can be used to help build a more equitable society. To be successful, you need to deliver great value to all your stakeholders, and we have come up with a digital tool that allows businesses to engage and reward their community, widening the circle of people who have access to equity-like incentives which in turn increases the pool of people who will advocate for the business and want it to succeed."
Company: Programmable Equity OÜ
Raised: $4.0M
Round: Seed Round
Funding Month: September 2022
Lead Investors: Plural
Additional Investors: LocalGlobe, Tiny.vc, and Matt Clifford
Company Website: https://koos.io/
Software Category: Incentivization Platform
About the Company: Founded in 2021 by Taavi Kotka, a serial entrepreneur, chief information officer for the government of Estonia, and angel investor in several startups, KOOS is a community incentivization platform that offers flexible, equity-like benefits to non-employee contributors. By leveraging KOOS' equity-like growth programs without giving away a single share, a company gives its community a reason to advocate for them with fairer rewards, which are paid out only when the company meets the predefined business goal. Since its launch, 27 early adopter-paying customers, including startups, NGOs, SMEs, and larger organizations, have run 35 programs. The SaaS pricing plan of KOOS includes an onboarding charge, a monthly retainer, and 1% of all rewards (tokens) generated through the platform's programs.
Source: https://techfundingnews.com/wise-co-founder-backs-4m-round-of-estonian-saas-startup-founded-by-serial-unicorn-investor/