Team development software Echometer receives 6-digit investment from renowned business angels
After successfully entering the market in 2020, Echometer receives a seed investment led by Oliver Flaskämper, the flaschenpost team and other experienced investors to expand software and team.
Münster, January 26, 2021: The events of the past year gave digital team building tools like Echometer an incredible boost. Now the digital coach for agile companies has announced its seed round of over half a million euros. The start-up, founded in Münster in 2019 by Christian Heidemeyer, Jean Michel Diaz and Robin Roschlau, helps organizations of all sizes and from all sectors to measurably further develop teams. The employees are the drivers of agile cultural change. The founding trio is looking forward to new investors who will support them on their way to becoming the leading digital coach.
Money from previous flaschenpost exit flows back into regional tech start-ups
In addition to the well-known serial entrepreneur and business angel Oliver Flaskämper, Echometer has gained further strong regional partners. Including the management team from flaschenpost, which sees Echometer as a promising tool. “We are very pleased that with Echometer another extremely ambitious team in the Münster start-up scene is entering the growth phase. Echometer shows how agile, new ways of working can be implemented and how to set new standards for the world of working. We are very proud to support Echometer in its future development”, so Stephen Weich, Managing Director at message in a bottle.
The entrepreneurs behind are also involved 1648 factory, HR Pioneer, medium-sized customers like Diamond software, Scrum Master Simon Hegener, and Sebastian Heide (VP Engineering at CrossEngage). “**We are particularly proud to bring together experts from various business areas & disciplines - IT, business and New Work - with our seed investment, who create real added value for Echometer both with their experience and their network”, says Christian Heidemeyer, co-founder of Echometer and responsible for marketing and sales.
Sebastian Heide, VP Engineering at CrossEngage adds:
“From my experience as a coach and manager in agile companies, I know how important the cultural change is – and also how difficult it is for companies. Echometer makes the change process measurable and controllable by the teams themselves. This saves companies a few years of trial and error and a lot of money in the agile transformation ”.
Growth boost for agile team development software
The current funding follows a strong start in 2020, with Echometer increasing its monthly sales tenfold from January through December. The young start-up from Münster continues to support companies in the cultural change and turns remote work into a positive team experience. “The combination of retrospective and engagement software provides organizations and teams with the right tools to create a work environment in which employees can get involved and unleash their potential”, explains Robin Roschlau, co-founder and responsible for product development and IT at Echometer. Customers such as Miele, T-Systems, Toyota, Frontastic and Shopware are already using the software successfully.
Business Angel Oliver Flaskämper adds: “I have known the team since it was formed as part of the Founders Foundation’s start-up school and am impressed with how Echometer has developed in the meantime. The growth in 2020 gives the team the right to work on something with huge potential here ”.
Echometer co-founder Jean Michel Diaz, who is responsible for product strategy and commercial matters in his role, confirms: “Even before the financing, we proved with our strong growth and with over 2,300 users that Echometer can be quickly understood in agile companies of very different sizes and industries and can be established in team’s everyday work environment. With the financing, we now have the opportunity to leverage our potential and actively shape the change in the world of work ”. The investment of about 600,000 euros will be used to develop the team in the areas of marketing, sales and product and expanding the SaaS platform with new features. The aim is to further increase employee engagement and to continuously develop agile methods in each business area.
About Echometer
The start-up Echometer, founded in Münster in 2019 (https://echometerapp.com/) is the digital coach for agile companies. The heart of the software is the team workshop tool, which is used to conduct so-called retrospectives. It enables participants to playfully review their successes and challenges of the past few weeks, to exchange ideas about communication, feedback culture and well-being, and thus to measurably develop as a team. The idea behind Echometer came about at the end of 2016 as part of the start-up school of Bielefeld https://foundersfoundation.de/ . This is where the diverse founding trio – Christian Heidemeyer (psychologist), Jean Michel Diaz (business administration) and Robin Roschlau (IT) – came together. It continued with a start-up grant through the psychological faculty of the University of Münster. Echometer today has over 2,300 active users and is used by companies such as Miele, T-Systems, Toyota and Westlotto.An overview of quotes from investors
“I have known the team since the start-up phase within the framework of the Founders Foundation’s start-up school and I am impressed by how Echometer has developed in the meantime. The growth in 2020 proves the team right in working on something with huge potential.” — Oliver Flaskämper, Serial Entrepreneur
“We are very pleased that Echometer, an extremely ambitious team, is entering the growth phase in the Münster start-up scene. Echometer shows how agile working and New Work can be implemented in concrete terms and how new standards are set for the world of work. As the management team of Flaschenpost, we are very pleased to actively support Echometer in its development and planned growth.” — Stephen Weich, CEO @ Flaschenpost
“As the owner of an established medium-sized company from the software industry, we are very pleased to be able to support Echometer in their growth. We have established Echometer in our company, Diamant Software, and were able to see for ourselves how quickly Echometer was adopted and appreciated by the teams and Agile Coaches.” — Jan Semmerling, Entrepreneur, Shareholder @ Diamant Software
“Since we at HR Pioneers have been supporting companies in their agile transformations for years, we know the classic challenges - the mindset of the employees. Echometer has developed a pinpoint tool that gives companies help for self-help, to start right there. I am very happy to be able to support!” — André Häusling, Founder & Managing Director @ HR Pioneers
“As someone who successfully sold his own startup to McKinsey, I know what’s important in scalable business models. And Echometer hit the nail on the head. As a business angel from Münster, I was immediately on board, of course.” — Sebastian Hanhues, Serial Entrepreneur
“As an Agile Coach, I know the challenge of bringing continuous measurable improvements. Echometer convinced me because the tool has practical team psychology built in. You won’t find that anywhere else. I was able to increase my change management competence many times over - without any effort on my part. My retrospectives have achieved a whole new quality.” — Simon Hegener, Consultant, Agile Coach & Scrum Master
“From my experience as a coach and manager in agile companies, I know how important cultural change is - and also how difficult companies find it. Echometer makes the change process measurable and controllable by the teams themselves. This saves companies some “trial-and-error” years and a lot of money in the agile transformation.” — Sebastian Heide-Meyer zu Erpen, VP Engineering @ CrossEngage
“From my experience as a coach and manager in agile companies, I know how important the cultural change is – and also how difficult it is for companies. Echometer makes the change process measurable and controllable by the teams themselves. This saves companies some “trial-and-error” years and a lot of money in the agile transformation.” — Sebastian Heide-Meyer zu Erpen, VP Engineering @ CrossEngage
