Viio, the intelligent spend management platform, has today announced it has raised over £2.7 million to help accelerate its ambitious growth plan.
Led by the venture fund North Ventures, Viio’s Investors include Christian Kromann, CEO of SimCorp, Klaus Holse, Chairman of the Board at Danish Industry, Susanne Bechmann Holse, Ulrik Bo Larsen, former CEO of Brandwatch, and Ole Andersen, former Nordic Director of Apple.
Michael Fornander, CEO and founder of Viio, said: “During COVID-19 and the period of zero interest rates and "free" capital, ZIRP SaaS consumption ran wild in many companies. Everyone needed Zoom and/or Teams for remote work and online meetings. Now, the economy is tighter, and many are rigorously cutting unnecessary expenses. Companies have been trying to solve the problem for a couple of years, but it has become very complex. Viio meets a significant, unsolved need. AI and automation can help with 90%, but getting the job done and creating real value only comes when people take action and decide which licenses and vendors to keep and which to cancel.
“We find that companies are very interested in our spend optimisation platform, but they also want the expertise to make sure they capture the value. When we started offering this, and not just being another software platform, customers really leaned in. It is complex to optimise a company's software spend because employees use the solutions dynamically, licence prices fluctuate and can be hard to understand, and there may be overlaps with other solutions. We use AI to keep track of it, but our staff helps the customer make decisions and execute them.”
Fornander continued: “Viio's long-term mission is far more ambitious than just reducing customers' costs. We are at the beginning of another technological revolution, where all software assets will need to be re-assessed and enterprise architecture needs to be redesigned from the ground up where proprietary data and intelligent automated actions will play a vital role. SaaS and cloud spend are the two largest and fastest-growing areas of IT expense for businesses worldwide and still up to 30% of software spend is wasted according to Gartner."
Mikkel Rørvig, partner at North Ventures, said: "The digital transformation has meant that employees today just buy a software subscription with the company credit card. Previously, the IT department handled all software, and therefore the overview of software licences has been lost in recent years. The SaaS market is estimated at £197 billion in 2024, has doubled in four years, and continues to grow, so there is a huge need for solutions to manage these expenses. Viio solves this problem and is at the forefront of the market. The solution is strongly positioned for all companies below the large enterprise level, as Viio's growth and excellent customer feedback also show. I believe that Viio has one of the sharpest SaaS management teams, which was crucial for us in the investment. We look forward to being actively involved in the company and contributing to its growth.”
“This investment comes after a strong couple of years for Viio, we aim to grow significantly by the end of the year and this investment will help us achieve this. We want to make sure we continue to hold a strong presence in the UK, where we’ve got a range of clients including Convex Insurance and Populous, as well as maintaining our presence across Europe. We are delighted to have the support from North Ventures along with the other incredible investors to accelerate our strategy and ambitions”, concluded Fornander.