The last million investment for Anyline was less than a year ago. At the beginning of February 2019, the Vienna AI scale-up raised two million euros from its existing investors and the Munich VC fund Senovo. At that time it was said that it was an “in-between investment” before a “larger indicated financing round” – the incubator reported,
In the night from Tuesday to Wednesday, the expected bang finally followed: In a broadcast, the scaleup announced that it was part of a Series A financing round twelve million dollars recorded. This increases the company’s total capital to $ 17 million. The new financial cushion is to be used to finance the forthcoming expansion into the USA.
+++ Anyline: 2 million euros “in-between investment” for Viennese AI startup +++
Opening of US headquarters
The Berlin Operational VC maintains the current Series A funding reasons Project A on. Anylines’ existing investors are also participating. They include Hansi Hansmann, Senovo, PUSH Ventures, Hermann Hauser and the Gernot Langes-Swarovski Foundation.
The fresh capital should primarily serve to expand the team and open a US headquarters in Boston. The opening is scheduled for early 2020. From the USA, Anyline would like to open up new international markets and areas of application for its mobile optical character recognition (OCR) solution.
With OCR technology, analog information – such as ID documents, number plates and measuring devices – can be scanned and documented with any standard smartphone. This is intended to support people in particular in repetitive work and to minimize errors caused by human error.
New markets and founding of Anyline.Inc
Anyline has already won over customers such as PepsiCo, Porsche, the UN and police organizations in Bavaria, North Rhine-Westphalia and Austria. In the future, there will also be a focus on Industry 4.0, FinTechs and KYC providers.
In order to open up new markets and industries in the USA, Anyline.Inc. founded its own American company.
In addition, the position of Vice President of Sales and Business Development will be filled with Byran Boatner. He previously served as Global Sales Director at Cognex Corporation, an American software and hardware manufacturer for machine vision systems. The company generated sales of $ 806 million in 2018.
AI platform planned
In the first statement, Lukas Kinigadner, CEO and Co-Founder of Anyline, spoke, among other things, about the technological development of his company. “Anyline also plans to use the capital from this financing round to develop an innovative, AI-supported platform on which customers can put together tailor-made OCR solutions themselves.”
Kinigadner also confidently comments on the current expansion plans in the broadcast: “Europe needs its own relevant technology companies to assert itself with regard to the dominance of American and Asian technology groups. We accept this challenge. “
The sales figures speak at least for themselves and indicate a clear growth course. In 2018, the startup triple its sales for the third year in a row – the incubator reported,
Statement by Hansmann and lead investor
The brutkasten asked Business Angel Hansi Hansmann for an opinion on his investment decision: Hansmann sees scaling potential in the US market in particular and emphasizes the strengths of the team: “I moved with me because I believe in Anyline’s huge potential. The fastest way to access this potential is in the United States. The company also has a first-class CEO and a management team with extensive experience in all important areas. I think they will give me a lot of pleasure. “
Uwe Horstmann, responsible partner at the main investor Project A, explains the investment in particular with the diverse application possibilities that arise in both the B2B area and the public sector. “Anyline has a superior product in the OCR area that is of interest to both the public and private customers. We are happy and proud to support Anyline with this financing round and our operational services, ”Horstmann concluded.
Video archive: Live talk with the co-founders of Anyline
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