Swedish startup Flowbox raises €7.5 million to help brands capitalise on customers’ content

Flowbox, a Swedish marketing startup working with user-generated content (UGC), has raised a €7.5 million Series A led by Viking Venture.

User-generated content is a marketing strategy where brands use their customers’ social media content within the business’ own channels. The idea is that customer content lends authenticity and credibility to the brand — and increases sales. Flowbox offers a suite of tools for this purpose, from community management to content publishing to e-commerce. The software is used by brands such as Tom Dixon, G-Star, and Scotch & Soda.

Founded in 2016, the Swedish startup has bootstrapped itself to 400 customers across ten countries, with annual recurring revenue at around €3.9 million. Its 42 employees work from offices in Stockholm, Amsterdam, Zurich and Antwerp. Now the company plans to grow that number with the help of a full-time recruiter, focusing mainly on the tech and sales teams.

Indeed, the Series A round will fund  an “offensive growth plan” that the startup hopes will land it at the top of the European market.

CEO Marcus Carloni commented on the decision to raise venture capital and the choice of a Nordic investor: “We are experiencing very positive momentum that we want to exploit, which is one of the reasons why we raise external capital. The choice fell on Viking Venture as they are active investors with deep expertise from previous investments in Nordic cloud companies that have made the same journey as we are embarking on.”