On course for success with review software – German startup Filestage concludes HTGF financing round

The High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF), Germany’s leading seed stage investor, has invested in the software company Filestage. The startup offers freelancers, agencies and marketing departments a review tool for the coordination of media content. With its unique review workflow it simplifies the daily communication with customers and colleagues.

Filestage is a web application to share, review and approve media content with teams and clients. Instead of sending emails back and forth, reviewers annotate their comments and change request directly inside the file. The web-based software runs on every browser and no installation is required. This means that it can be used on any computer, tablet and smartphone with internet connection.

The Filestage concept has come at exactly the right time because “there is an enormous demand for efficient solutions in this area”, according to Dr. Sebastian Suhr, Senior Investment Manager at HTGF. Filestage software has already helped several thousand companies to optimise their worldwide approval processes. Filestage can already boast global media companies amongst their customers. “It’s likely that everybody has sometime seen a series or advertisement that has been coordinated with Filestage”, he stated.

“The ease of use is extremely important for our customers”, states Maël Frize, product designer at Filestage. Before founding the company, the managing directors Niklas Dorn, Simon Kontschak and Maël Frize had noticed how time-consuming and error-prone coordination processes with regard to customer projects could be. “The path through to final approval could be nerve-racking and stressful – particularly with audio-visual contents such as videos and graphics”, explains Niklas Dorn. “Our tool makes the handling of reviews simple and efficient. This not only saves a lot of time, but in the end also hard cash”, adds Frize.

With the HTGF seed financing, the startup will be able to continue the development of its web application as well as add new features, such as the review of websites, social media posts and PowerPoint presentations. In addition, Filestage will invest in its customer support in order to continue to provide the best possible service to its users.

About Filestage
Filestage GmbH was founded in 2015 by Niklas Dorn, Maël Frize and Simon Kontschak in Stuttgart. Since then, the startup has established itself as one of the leading software providers for the coordination of media Content. Filestage offers freelancers, agencies and marketing departments a review tool for the coordination of media content. With its unique review workflow it simplifies the daily communication with customers and colleagues.

About High-Tech Gründerfonds
High-Tech Gründerfonds invests in young, high potential high-tech start-ups. The seed financing provided is designed to enable start-ups to take an idea through prototyping and to market launch. Typically, High-Tech Gründerfonds invests EUR 600,000 in the seed stage, with the potential for up to a total of EUR 2 million per portfolio company in follow-on financing. Investors in this public/private partnership include the Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy, the KfW Banking Group, as well as strategic corporate investors including ALTANA, BASF, Bayer, B. Braun, Robert Bosch, CEWE, Daimler, Deutsche Post DHL, Deutsche Telekom, Evonik, Lanxess, media + more venture Beteiligungs GmbH & Co. KG, METRO, Qiagen, RWE Innogy, SAP, Tengelmann and Carl Zeiss. High-Tech Gründerfonds has about EUR 576 million under management in two funds (EUR 272 million HTGF I, EUR 304 million HTGF II).

Contact:
High-Tech Gründerfonds Management GmbH
Dr. Sebastian Suhr
Schlegelstraße 2
53113 Bonn
Tel: +49 (228) 823 001-00
Fax: +49 (228) 823 000-50
info@high-tech-gruenderfonds.de
www.high-tech-gruenderfonds.de