Zinkler, a Barcelona-based insights automation platform announced that it has secured €5.5M in Series A funding round led by Caixa Capital Risc. Other new investors, including EASO Ventures, Full Global Investments, Beacon Capital, and CDTI Innvierte, also participated.
The Spanish VC Caixa Capital Risc contributed €1.7M after its 2017 investment which helped Zinklar accelerate its expansion and strengthen its commercial strategy. With this round, a representative from Beacon Capital joins the board, alongside Caixa Capital Risc, Inveready and Zinklar’s founders.
The funds will enable Zinklar to further enhance its analytical capabilities and AI-based automation platform. The company also plans to use the funds to hire new talents to fuel its global expansion, particularly in the US.
SaaS platform for consumer research
Founded by Jordi Ferrer and Borja Ormaechea in 2016, Zinklar is a consumer research SaaS platform that connects brands to consumers. Based out of Barcelona, the company’s automation platform provides critical information about consumer needs and preferences to improve businesses’ decision-making.
Zinklar says its intuitive interface taps into 140M consumers in over 80 markets and gathers vital insights in as little as four hours. More than 300 leading businesses in packaged goods, health, banking, telecoms and many other verticals have already used Zinklar, including Reckitt, Google, Hershey’s, Panasonic, CaixaBank, The Body Shop, Bayer, Disney and AT&T.
“This series A funding is a major milestone for Zinklar. I am particularly excited as to what we will achieve with even more automation, in further democratizing access to best-in-class insights for all kinds of businesses. From leading brands that are now able to multiply their research and generate more insights across more geographies, to medium and smaller businesses that can now understand their consumers and make data-driven decisions in just a few hours. Our vision is that any professional from any company can access the best consumer insights at any moment, without having to be an expert, turning them into consumer-centric organizations,” says Jordi Ferrer, founder and CEO at Zinklar.
Invests in disruptive tech companies
Caixa Capital Risc, CriteriaCaixa’s venture capital manager has already invested in more than 100 innovative companies with high growth potential and operates in the life sciences, digital technology, and industrial technology sectors.
The Criteria Venture Tech fund, managed by Caixa Capital Risc, aims to invest in the most disruptive technology companies in the B2B market to improve efficiency and business performance.
With a focus on Spanish and Portuguese companies, it offers initial tickets of €500K to €2M, with the ability to follow up to €5M.
“By leading this Series A funding, Caixa Capital Risc is thrilled to strengthen its four-year-long relationship with Zinklar, with substantial investment from our new Criteria Venture Tech fund,” says Xavier Alvarez, managing director of tech investments at Caixa Capital Risc.
He adds, “Zinklar is a valued disruptive company endorsed by multinational clients from very diverse sectors. We strongly believe in its unique market research platform and in the management team’s vision to build a global leader in the consumer insights industry.”
“Over the next decade, brands will face unprecedented challenges as they look to decode the shifts in consumer behavior in the new, liquidity-constrained environment. To pivot back to growth, they will have to press ‘reset’ on how they access consumer insights. Zinklar’s platform, built by two subject-matter-expert founders, offers a step-change in gaining consumer insights, combining market research orthodoxy with AI to automate the process and collapse the time and cost to insight. We are truly excited to partner with the two co-founders and co-CEOs, Borja and Jordi, to build the next category leader in consumer insights,” says Maria Dramalioti-Taylor, managing partner at Beacon.
