One more startup leaves the studio: Aircall’s (HX14) tremendous fundraising and takeoff

At eFounders, the goal is for each of our startups to become fully independent. Concretely, this means that when one of our ‘babies’ is ready to leave the nest, firstly, we say to ourselves that we’ve accomplished our mission and secondly, we’re VERY happy! No kidding, it can be heartbreaking, but there’s nothing more fulfilling than seeing one of our company go it alone.

And, this is exactly what’s just happened with Aircall. They recently raised a tremendous amount of money with top investors and two days ago, moved into shiny new offices.

We miss them, a bit. Actually, let me think for a sec, no, that’s not quite true 😏As they grew their Paris team from 4 to 15 people in less than three months, they took, slowly but surely, all the space in our own office — we were so tightly packed that it was becoming unbearable! Thankfully, they moved out! 😂

An incredible year and a top accelerator in the Valley

What a year for Aircall! Between January 2015 and January 2016, they did so many awesome things that you could ask yourself how it was humanly possible!

• They built an incredible app to handle phone calls as easily as emails, wherever you are, on any device (computer, smartphone or tablet)

The value proposition is simple: Aircall enables you to create a business phone system in minutes. Get phone numbers instantly in over 40 countries, connect your team and a number for one or several people or several numbers for one person.

• They rolled out features on a weekly basis and now you need to scroll down for more than 5 times to discover them all on their website

Snazzy features include: use smart routing rules to implement a system that suits your needs, personalize your messages, install Click to Call buttons on your website, track performance using in-depth analytics, record calls, integrate all your call information in your Helpdesk or CRM (Salesfore, Pipedrive, Zendesk and more!)… check out the complete list here.

• They participated in 500 Startup’s Accelerator Program and pitched at TechCrunch Disrupt Battlefield in San Francisco

In this blogpost, the team explains how they trained for the pitch so much that they began to pitch in their dreams; how they survived living on top of each other for 4 months but also lived a unique bonding experience; how they faced the highly-demanding US market; and, last but not least, how they worked like mad, gave everything they could and never stopped believing in what they were doing.

Before CEO Oliver started fundraising, he was told that he would need to go to 100 meetings to find an investor willing to invest in his company. And, that’s what he did. He met 125 investors and completed this marathon by raising a hell of a lot of money: $2.75M with top-notch VCs — Balderton Capital and the Funders Club — as well as BAs.

At eFounders, we’re very proud of Aircall’s amazing team and think exactly like their investors at Balderton:

Aircall has the potential to transform the business telephony industry through an innovative app-based, collaboration-oriented software. It eliminates the need for traditional phone systems for businesses of any size, and neatly integrates phone communication with companies’ software infrastructures. The company is on a very fast ramp, and we are excited to be able to help grow the company globally.

So, what’s next?

Growth, growth and growth!

Our companies usually encounter strong, steady growth, but Aircall is experiencing a steep rise and we have every reason to think this will continue. In the last few months, Aircall tripled its MRR and experienced 30% monthly growth!

What are they going to do with all this money?

Firstly, keep on disrupting the market of collaborative VOIP solutions. And this is not a small task given that it’s worth $40B.

Secondly, target bigger teams and start scaling. Currently, the app is used by almost 1000 companies with an average of 10 employees. But, Aircall, has now the means to think bigger and conquer the global SMB market. Aircall could also be used used by sales and marketing teams in international companies, not only for customer support. Uber and Deliveroo are convinced. What about you?

Thirdly, and quite obviously, they are hiring in Paris and New York. Check out their job offers here. You can apply with your eyes shut, the team is absolutely amazing.

Congrats Aircall, what an amazing job!

Stop by and say hello soon, please — we miss you already!