"Basically, we have digitized the clipboard"

With Smapone, apps can be built without any prior programming knowledge. After completing his financing round, founder Sven Zuschlag tells us in an interview what he plans to do with the money and what the future holds for his start-up.

Sven Zuschlag has every reason to be happy when he appears in front of his computer screen. He has just raised 20 million euros in a financing round. The investors could hardly be more prominent: Paul Achleitner is one of them, as are Achim Berg and Jan Klatten - and soccer star Thomas Müller has also invested in Smapone. In this interview, the founder explains what he hopes to gain from the new investors and what the future holds for his start-up.

Mr Zuschlag, you launched Smapone to make it easier for companies to digitalize their processes. But why should they go to you and not simply to SAP?

Because it makes a difference whether you buy your child a scale model car from a specialist store or give them a Lego construction set so they can build their own car. With Smapone, we want everyone in the company to be able to playfully build an app that digitizes their work. We give them the Lego parts to do this. What's more, it should be so simple that it doesn't require a nerd in the IT department, but the specialist department can create the app itself. 95 percent of our customers come directly from the specialist departments.

Please give us an example.

Basically, we have digitized the clipboard and that was and still is far too common in the German corporate world. Vonovia, for example, is one of our customers. When they need to inspect a property, they used to use a pen and paper, but now they use an app that they built with our platform. Another example would be travel expense accounting. Here, too, our customers can build their own app exactly according to their needs. Because even that is only standardized to a certain extent. Of course, they could also buy ready-made software, but this is usually not tailored exactly to their specific requirements.

You have just announced the successful conclusion of a financing round. Why do you need the 20 million euros?

As a scale-up, we are now in a phase where we need to reach as many customers as possible. We are already the market leader in Germany as a SaaS no-code platform. We want to expand our position - and remain simple enough to ensure that our offering is not only used by IT specialists in the future. This is more expensive than you might think: anyone can do complicated.

Are you also planning to go abroad?

So far, we have mainly been represented in the DACH region. A good ten percent of our turnover currently comes from abroad. We are currently facing the question of whether we want to expand in Europe or perhaps even venture into the USA. We want to have decided on this in the fourth quarter.

There are some prominent names among your new investors via Nordwind Capital, including Thomas Müller. How do you convince a footballer to invest in a B2B start-up?

Basically in the same way as all other investors, with a good pitch. A year ago, we thought about which investors would suit us - do we need a traditional VC or perhaps a family office? In the end, we turned to Nordwind Capital, among others. Behind it is a very interesting network for us, including Paul Achleitner, Achim Berg, Olaf Berlien, Jan Klatten, Peter Löscher, Andreas Obereder and Thomas Müller. Of course Thomas Müller comes, if at all, from the B2C scene, he has the user's perspective. More importantly, Thomas Müller is a unique player, unmistakable. He fits so well because he is one of the last real "gamblers" in soccer and achieves great things unconventionally. The same goes for Smapone. He is characterized by his playfulness and we will also bring that into the business world.

How intensive is the exchange with Achleitner and Co.

We wanted investors who are also our sparring partners, who have contacts and can support us in the next steps. As a scale-up, our main focus now is on growth. If I talk to Paul Achleitner or Achim Berg, for example, they understand my problem very quickly and can help solve it. In Nordwind Capital, we have found an investor who is providing us with intensive support.

You have already mentioned the planned expansion. What are the next steps for Smapone?

We want to double our team, which currently consists of 65 employees, by next year. We also want to take the next step in terms of technology. At the moment, we are still at the level of Lego, so to speak - the next step will be with Lego technology. There should be more and more design options for new apps for our customers. We are also working on bringing the community together. Up to now, only the departments in our own company have exchanged information about the apps developed. More than 50,000 apps have already been created via our platform. Another company could also be inspired by one or two of these solutions. We are curious to see if it works out the way we want it to.

Thank you very much for the interview.

Personal details: Sven Zuschlag worked for Microsoft in Germany for a good seven years. He then realized that his daughter was fitter on her cell phone than he was - and that there were significantly more useful apps in the B2C world than in the B2B world. Zuschlag then founded Smapone together with Thomas Schwarz in 2013. Their platform was launched in 2015. Its customers include real estate group Vonovia and logistics company Dachser.