Today, Berlin-based device-on-demand/IT-as-a-service startup WAY has confirmed a €1.2 million pre-seed funding round.
According to the company’s co-founder and CEO Jonas Baum, the capital will be used to further develop the WAY platform, one that aims to fuse device procurement and outsourced IT services.
The round was led by Belgian VC fund Pitchdrive, and drew the participation of IBB Ventures, FvS Investments, and HRtech-focused fund allygatr. Angel investors include Kenjo CEO David Padilla, Comatch founders Jan Schächtele and Christoph Hardt, Joblift CTO Denis Bauer, and Circus Kitchen CTO Helge Plehn.
IT aplenty
I’m going to go out on a limb here and speculate that along the lines of the explosion of BNPL players or revenue-based financing outfits, we’ll see the continued entry of IT-as-a-Service outfits.
Just last week Berlin’s self-billed “IT Operating System” startup deeploi welcomed $6.5 million in an Atomico-led round, bringing its total capital raised to date to €9 million, while Copenhagen’s Marts received €1.75 million in pre-seed capital in early October of last year.
Similar in nature, device rental/refurbishment outfits abound and include UK’s Ooodles, Raylo, Everphone, and of course Back Market and Grover.
While WAY hasn’t quite taken on the refurbishment angle yet, I’d be quite surprised if this wasn’t in the pipeline, the startup is offering a unique play in so much as offering a hybrid of the device-on-demand model with that of the “we’ll save your founders, HR people, or office manager the headache of managing the IT”.
According to WAY, equipping new employees with a device and all necessary tools takes less than 60 seconds thanks to integrations with all major HR tools, Microsoft Teams, and Slack.
Moreover, WAY is leveraging Slack to handle hardware inventory by syncing a company’s existing device fleet and all employees so that the assignment of devices is fully automated.
Free-to-play, add-ons extra
As a deal sweetener, WAY is offering many features for free, a fact the company points out in a side-by-side comparison with deeploi.
Perhaps taking a page from the free-to-play games playbook, WAY then offers premium add-ons such as increased levels of automation and security.
WAY co-founded and CEO Jonas Baum shares:
"Even tech-savvy SMEs often professionalise their IT too late because existing solutions are too expensive and designed for large companies with internal IT departments.
“Our goal is to ensure everything is done right from the start, and no company ever has to experience the infamous IT pain again."
Lead image: WAY co-founders Jonas Baum and Cedric Bals. Photo: Uncredited.
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