● MeltingSpot is surfing the wave of online communities and wants to establish itself as the reference tool for companies that choose to adopt a Community-Led Growth strategy, outside of social networks.
● MeltingSpot announces a $3M round of seed funding with Ankaa Ventures, Isai, SaaS Partners, Kima and Notus Technologies, as well as a dozen business angels.
MeltingSpot makes online communities easy and maximizes member engagement
Companies that run communities online, whether internal or external, use an average of 13 different tools, making the experience for their members particularly complicated. At the same time, a new growth strategy is emerging: Community-Led Growth, which places communities at the heart of marketing strategy and product development. At a time when most companies are struggling to find new customer acquisition channels and keep their audiences engaged, MeltingSpot simplifies community management by centralizing the features that are essential to their management.
Launched in early 2021, this Community Platform places video at the heart of community experience. With just a few clicks, you get to organize and host all types of lives and events, from basic workshops to large online conferences. The discussion threads and collections area make it possible to extend the interaction over time, in an asynchronous way.
An investment round of $3 million with VC funds and several business angels
It’s in this context that the company announced a $3M round of financing from Ankaa Ventures, ISAI, SaaS Partners, Kima Ventures and Notus Technologies, associated with a few business angels who are used to seed operations in the tech industry, including Thibaud Elziere (eFounders, Folk... ), Julien Romanetto (Teads, Arianee), Alexandre Crosby (Ubeeqo), Thibault Hanin (Synthesio) and Thierry Vandewalle (Wind Capital).
"In an increasingly decentralized work environment, companies have been able to quickly switch from face-to-face to video conferencing. They are now ready for the next step, which is to leverage their digital communities and shift their business model in the process. This is exactly the kind of disruption in the workplace that we want to support with Meltingspot" said Jonathan Cohen Sabban, Ankaa Ventures.
"The Creator Economy, Web 3.0 with DAOs, collaborative tools based on user-generated content... Online communities have proven their potential to create value. And this is only the beginning. We are deeply convinced of the value of communities and the Community Led Growth approach, and that's why we are partnering with MeltingSpot" says Juliette Mopin, ISAI.
Thanks to this fundraising, MeltingSpot wishes to continue the development of its unique community platform, multiply its integrations with other tools used by its customers (CRM, marketing automation platform), and strengthen its team to preempt booming European markets.
"Creating a community is one of the most effective marketing levers for a brand today. Whether it's to acquire new customers, co-construct a product or position yourself as an opinion leader on a given subject, companies are all called upon to create and engage their online communities. They are looking for an alternative to webinars, which are now outdated, and to social media, which create awareness but not enough engagement. MeltingSpot provides them with a concrete solution, far from the noise and algorithms of social networks, to create a community, private or public." Benoit Chatelier, CEO and co-founder of MeltingSpot, sums it up.
List of contributors
About MeltingSpot
Website : meltingspot.io
Spot : MeltingSpot Community
Created in 2021 by Benoit Chatelier (Founder of Ubeeqo - sold in 2017 to Europcar Mobility Group) and Sébastien Chatelier, MeltingSpot is a SaaS Community Platform whose mission is to help any type of organization (companies, networks, associations, independent creators...) to create, grow and engage their online communities. MeltingSpot also runs its own Community, dedicated to Community-Led Growth, which already has more than 5000 members in Europe and the United States.
About Ankaa Ventures
Launched in 2021, Ankaa Ventures is a venture capital investment firm with a community-led approach. Ankaa Ventures invests in European startups at an early stage. More than 100 active investors, between the United States, Europe and the Middle East, bring operational and collaborative support to all the entrepreneurs from their portfolio, built around two topics: the Positive Future (circular economy, future of work, mobility) and Data (cloud, cybersecurity, fintech/insurtech). Ankaa Ventures supports the ambition of visionary founders through its energy, its involvement and its ecosystem.
Follow Ankaa Ventures' news on ankaa.ventures
About ISAI
Launched in 2010 and operating between Paris and New York, ISAI is a renowned fund for French digital entrepreneurs and brings together a community of over 300 entrepreneurs worldwide. Nearly 250 successful entrepreneurs, who have invested in ISAI funds, and more than 50 co-founders of ISAI-backed companies share the collective ambition of co-writing great entrepreneurial stories. ISAI invests in differentiated projects led by ambitious teams that it selects rigorously and actively supports.
With €500 million under management, ISAI Gestion, an AMF-accredited management company, aims to finance and support high-potential companies, whether they are in their early stages (venture capital, €150K to €3 million with participation in successive rounds) or have already reached some form of maturity (development capital/LBO, €5 million to €50 million).
