Funnel announces $66m Pre-IPO funding

We're delighted to congratulate Funnel on securing $66m in Pre-IPO funding. We're honoured to continue supporting co-founders Fredrik Skantze, Per Made and the entire Funnel team as they cement their position as the global leading marketing data platform!

The investment is led by The Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund (AP4) and Stena Sessan, with participation from existing investors including Oxx, Balderton Capital, Eight Roads, F-Prime and Industrifonden. The investment will be used to accelerate Funnel’s growth further ahead of a Nasdaq Stockholm IPO.

Oxx co-founder and General Partner Mikael Johnsson has chaired Funnel’s Board since 2016, with Oxx later leading a growth equity financing in 2018. Speaking at the time of Oxx's initial investment, Funnel CEO Frederik Skantze said, “At the stage of rapid growth and international expansion that Funnel is now in, it is valuable to work with a specialised and experienced B2B software investor like Oxx, that can help take the company to the next level. Mikael Johnsson has already provided us with valuable advice and guidance for a number of years and we are pleased to now further cement the relationship with this investment by Oxx.”

You can read more about why we originally invested in Funnel in a blog written by Oxx Principal, Bob Thomas, here.

Or learn more about the funding and what's next for Funnel in an interview between Fredrik Skantze and TechCrunch's Ingrid Lunden here.

Stockholm, October 12, 2021. SaaS scaleup Funnel, the leading Data Platform for Marketing, has closed a Pre-IPO investment of $66 Million USD of primary capital to fund the continued rapid expansion of the business. The investment is led by The Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund (AP4) and Stena Sessan, with participation from existing investors, including Balderton Capital, Eight Roads, F-Prime, Oxx, and Industrifonden. The closing marks the last round of private funding before Funnel’s planned initial public offering (IPO) on Nasdaq Stockholm.

Marketing is now a digital-first industry with 60% of marketing spend having moved online, according to research firm eMarketer1. This is the biggest shift for marketing since David Ogilvy introduced modern advertising some 60 years ago. Digital comes with a promise of measurability, and, for the first time, marketing is accountable for driving revenue. This is an opportunity that raises the stakes when it comes to measuring and optimizing performance. Many marketing organizations are struggling since they mostly rely on manual reporting using spreadsheets.

Funnel is the Data Platform which solves the problem of measurement and performance optimization for marketing organizations and teams. Its pre-built marketing connectors gather the data marketers need, letting them easily analyze performance through leading visualization tools. Thanks to automatic curation and data harmonization, marketers and analysts get real-team insights to make better decisions, with no coding or technical teams required.

Fredrik Skantze, CEO and Co-Founder of Funnel, comments: “The market has matured substantially since Per Made and I founded Funnel. Back in 2014 it was mostly ecommerce and app companies that cared about measuring digital marketing performance. Now, it is top of mind with virtually every marketing organization, something which is evident with our customers and has driven our strong growth. With AP4 and Stena Sessan we are bringing two large public market investors onboard, and we look forward to working with them as we prepare to take the company public.”

Jannis Kitsakis, Senior Portfolio Manager at AP4, comments: “We are long term investors who look for companies we like and hold them for a long time. We were impressed with the size of the global opportunity and the team’s ambition to build a large software company.”

Fredrik Konopik, Investment Director at Stena Sessan, comments: “Funnel has shown strong, predictable growth with impressive go to market metrics and a global footprint. We feel that the company is well positioned for the public market in Sweden.”

Over 1200 of the world’s most innovative digital marketing teams use Funnel’s Data Platform to date, including Home Depot, trivago, Skechers, Samsung, Vodafone, Logitech, Skyscanner, SAS – Scandinavian Airlines, as well as leading media agencies Havas Media, Ogilvy and DAC Group.

ABG Sundal Collier acted as financial advisor, and Vinge as legal counsel to Funnel in the financing process.