According to market research firm Gartner, spending on SaaS by enterprises is projected to reach nearly $200 billion in 2023, surpassing the $167 billion spent in 2022. However, many vendors lack the necessary software-driven tools to truly understand their customers’ needs.
To address this challenge, Minoa, a Berlin-based startup, has emerged with software-driven value and pricing management solutions for more effective enterprise SaaS sales. In an oversubscribed pre-seed funding round, the startup raised $2.7 million.
The round was led by 468 Capital, which previously backed Berlin-based informed. Other participants included Mischief (led by Plaid founder Zach Perret), AirAngels (led by Podcaster Lenny Rachitsky), Alumni Ventures, Fidi Ventures, and angel investors such as Mathilde Collin (founder of Front), Russ Heddleston (founder of DocSend), and senior executives from Amazon, Airbnb, and Salesforce.
With the aim of establishing a strong presence in Silicon Valley, Minoa plans to utilize the funds to expand its team in San Francisco by hiring a founding engineer and a founding UX/UI designer.
Max Elster, co-founder and CEO of Minoa, emphasized the importance of involving buyers and champions in the sales process to better understand customers and optimize pricing. Richard Einhorn, co-founder and CTO of Minoa, highlighted the challenges in SaaS sales, emphasizing the need for a collaborative approach with customers and prospects.
Philipp Seifert, partner at 468 Capital, expressed confidence in Minoa’s founding team and their profound understanding of the SaaS sales process. He praised the collaborative value management offering, believing it has the potential to challenge even the largest incumbent CRM vendors.
Founded in 2022 by Max Elster and Richard Einhorn, Minoa is a collaborative value management platform that enhances the SaaS buying experience and improves sales performance. The platform offers intuitive solutions for both salespeople and buyers, facilitating better insights into customers’ willingness to pay through collaborative sales processes that involve sharing ROI calculators and value cases.
By adopting a unique collaborative approach that involves partnering sellers with buyers and prospects, Minoa enables SaaS vendors to gain deep customer insights, leading to higher conversion rates, larger deal sizes, and reduced churn.
