TheyDo bags €31M to solve ‘century’s biggest business problem’

Dutch startup TheyDo has raised $34mn to solve “the biggest business problem” of the century:  scaling customer journeys.

Founded in 2019, the company produces a live platform that provides actionable insights about customers.

Enterprises can use the tools at every step of the journey, from discovery to purchase to after-sales. Current clients include Fortune 500 members Ford, Johnson & Johnson, and Home Depot.

The software’s USP is a holistic approach that breaks down data siloes and integrates every step of the customer experience. As TheyDo puts it: “Moving from management by dashboard to management by journeys.” 

The startup’s CEO, Jochem van der Veer, told TNW that the approach creates links across the enterprise.

“We’ve simplified the biggest business problem of the last century: working customer-centric at scale,” he said. “With journeys at the heart, we’re bringing an operating model that is agile and customer-centric.”

It’s a bold claim but one that’s been common for decades. Back in the 1950s, the legendary consultant Peter Drucker had a famous version of his own: “There is only one valid definition of business purpose: to create a customer… so a business has two functions: marketing and innovation.”

For today’s enterprises, however, those two functions are just the start.

New routes on customer  journeys

Fortune 500 companies now have endless functions, from CX, engineering, and design to research, service, and marketing. All of these need to be customer-centric.

TheyDo’s solution aims to bring them all together. 

COVID-19 provided another boost to the business. The rise of remote working during the pandemic exposed and deepened misalignment between teams, while rapid digitisation added countless customer service avenues — and competition.

“Even with return-to-office policies, a lot of teams need a set of tools to collaborate asynchronously on the customer experience,”  van der Veer said.

TheyDo’s rapid expansion suggests he has a point. The company has consecutively hit triple-digit year-on-year (YoY) growth. This pushes it beyond a coveted yardstick used by VCs to spot attractive startups: “triple twice, double three times” — 200% YoY revenue growth for two years followed by 100% revenue growth YoY for three years.

Those figures have caught the eye of investors. Today’s raise brings the startup’s total funding to just under $50 million. Blossom Capital, a VC firm based in London, let the latest round.

Van der Veer expects the cash from customers to strengthen the investment.

“Within the Fortune 500, there is a real need for an enterprise solution that ties data, insights, workflows, and decision-making together,” he said. “These global corporations cannot rely on twenty different tools holding various pieces of the puzzle.”

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