Estonian Qminder secures €3M Seed for service delivery SaaS

Customer service flow management platform Qminder has raised €3 million in Seed funding. 

Founded in 2011 by Rauno Rüngas and Siim Raud, Qminder tackles inefficient service delivery in physical locations. 

Qminder’s platform automates key customer service touchpoints, guiding visitors seamlessly from welcome to service. By managing communication and navigation, Qminder lets staff focus on delivering personalised service. 

I spoke to CEO Rauno Rüngas to find out more. 

The platform’s real-time insights allow managers to monitor and improve wait and service times, ensuring a smooth, satisfying customer journey. 

In-person service branches, like government permit offices and urgent care centres, face annual costs of up to $2 million per location in managing, organising, and measuring services. 

According to Rüngas, 

“COVID pushed establishments to rethink customer flow, steps, people and software involved. Basically ’who coughed on who’. It’s created a demand for actionable service data.It educated the market.

But the biggest learning from COVID times was, that if that crisis did not move everything online - nothing will. Customers still demand in-person services. 

Qminder’s platform offers real-time insights and comprehensive reporting, to make better data-informed decisions."

The company has a 10-year track record of profitable bootstrapping and recognition as a market expert in queue management solutions,  

Rüngas shared that the industry has moved past bulky, custom hardware: printers, touchscreens etc. 

“Qminder leverages Apple’s ecosystem, focusing on data-rich software that provides insights into employee performance, service levels, and customer needs. In the future, our AI assistant will be a valuable sidekick for every front-line worker.”

Unlike others focused solely on eliminating queues, which Rüngas calls “just a symptom”, Qminder addresses the root of the problem: Service Flow Management.

“We optimise resource planning, gather visitor data, and analyse service patterns, moving beyond the wait-room and providing value to the back-office."

Customers include  Hertz, AMEX, American Express, and Delta. With this new capital.  

Practica Capital led the round, marking its first investment in Estonia from its latest fund and Qminder’s first institutional funding. 

The round also included Jaan Tallinn’s Metaplanet, BADideas.fund syndicate, and angel investors from Toggl, Veriff, Pipedrive, Wise, and Twilio.

“Previously, innovative front-line clerks, receptionists, and store managers implemented Qminder to manage individual waiting rooms and chaotic shop floors."

Now, we are seeing VP-level decision-makers, customer experience consultancies, and analysts come to us to prevent such problems and make in-person service measurable from the start and at scale,” specified Rüngas.

He stressed: 

“Human is still the best interface for any establishment, brand, or business —and yes.. best does translate to the most profitable in many instances.”