Xara raises €3 million to help businesses create professional documents

Berlin-based Xara, a document design platform, has raised a €3 million round from Bellevue Investments & Co.

The company's new software, Xara Cloud, is a browser-based document editor that allows businesses to easily create a range of professional-looking business documents and content, including presentations, social media advertisements, catalogs, web banners, and even e-books. No design experience is needed to use the software.

"There's a massive gap between basic document editors like Word, PowerPoint, and Google Suite, and then professional design software like Adobe," explained Matt Bolton, CEO of Xara. "So you have designers, and then you have the rest of the world who has to use these tools that don't really have any design capabilities. We're bridging that gap between something that's easy to use like PowerPoint, but professional looking like it was done in design software."

Bolton went on to explain the necessity of a product like Xara Cloud in today's market, and how it can help brands to gain greater visibility.

"It's really important in this day and age for businesses to separate themselves," said Bolton. "With everything so visual these days, with all of the different social media channels and advertising - all the way down to flyers and business cards - you need something that allows your brand to stick, but also stand out, and we believe that that needs to be available for the masses, and that's what we're going after."

It seems there's some market demand for a product like Xara.

“We are excited about the market disruption potential of Xara," said Jürgen Jaron, founder and CEO of Bellevue Investments & Co. "In today’s world, users expect rich functionality in easy to use packages. Unfortunately, the business market has been left with legacy, bloated, and complex products. We believe by combining Xara’s deep design software expertise with modern product principals, Xara has the chance to become the market leader.”

“Xara has made the output I created for my clients much more professional, improving my image with them," commented one customer, Walter Westervelt of Clavigo Partners. "After showing a client just a draft they actually mentioned the improvement ."

The document-making platform isn't prohibitively expensive for businesses to try out. Xara Cloud can currently be accessed through a free trial, and the premium version is available starting at €5.95 per user per month.