Founded in Sweden, Life Inside, a two-year-old SaaS company, announced today that it has secured £300,000 in funding from a group of angel investors, including Stefan Magnusson, seed investor in Evolution Gaming, Jonas Brogårdh, Sweden’s former Secretary of Commerce in the UK, and Houman Ashrafzadeh, who co-founded Padium UK with Spotify founder Martin Lorentzson.
While there are many video platforms being operated which have different use-cases, most of them are largely getting the VC fundings these days compared to other formats of marketing asset delivery platform. Recently, once such platform based out of the US raised $3M to let anyone create Hollywood-quality videos with AI.
What is Life Inside?
Life Inside, which was co-founded by Charles Sinclair, provides businesses with a platform to collect and publish interactive video testimonials from employees and customers. This approach aims to personalise marketing content and connect audiences with brands on a deeper level. The platform also prioritises data privacy and adheres to GDPR regulations, offering businesses peace of mind regarding security and privacy standards.
Via the platform, users can actively choose topics and formats, increasing engagement and potentially boosting conversion rates for recruitment, employer branding, sales, and marketing efforts.
How will the funds be used?
The company aims to leverage the investment to expand its platform and global reach, focusing on enhancing interactivity and incorporating AI features.
To elaborate on how the funding will be utilised, Life Inside says that it will use the raised money to:
- Enhance platform interactivity: Users can expect more engaging and personalised experiences.
- Incorporate AI features: Automated content analysis and generation might be on the horizon.
- Expand marketing and global reach: Life Inside aims to attract more clients and reach new markets.
Talking about the AI integration on the platform, Charles Sinclair told TFN, “AI’s getting better and better all the time.” He further added, “That’s why we see Life Inside sitting at this exciting intersection between online website engagement software and chatbots. Imagine having the CEO, head of marketing, or any key personnel appear as interactive video chatbots across your website. Visitors can ask questions, and these dynamic figures respond on video, creating a highly personalised and engaging experience. That’s the future we’re actively building into the product.”
This glimpse into Life Inside’s development roadmap raises intriguing possibilities for how AI-powered video interactions might augment online visitor engagement.
Life Inside’s growth and business plans
Since its launch in 2022, Life Inside has amassed over 70 paying clients, including Specsavers, Adecco, and Axfood. With a diverse team of 11 and with 60:40 male-to-female employee ratio, the company has now reached cash positivity within two years, highlighting its potential and market traction. Additionally, Life Inside was a finalist for “SaaS-Newcomer of the Year” at the Breakit SaaS Summit in both 2022 and 2023.
With regards to market strategy, co-founder at Life Inside, Charles Sinclair outlined the startup’s go-to-market strategy, emphasising partnerships and direct outreach to TFN exclusively, saying, “We’re structuring it in two ways. Firstly, a partner program is being established. Web agencies, advertising agencies, recruitment companies – all these kinds of partners will have the opportunity to offer Life Inside to their clients with a revenue share model.”
He elaborated, “Secondly, part of the new investment will boost our own inbound and digital marketing efforts. And of course, there’s also an outreach team in place.” This multi-pronged approach suggests Life Inside is actively seeking to expand its reach and establish itself within the marketing technology landscape.
Competitors and competition landscape
Life Inside operates in a growing market for video marketing and employee engagement tools. Competitors include providers of Application Tracking Systems (ATS) and chatbots, offering solutions like video interviews and interactive dialogues. However, Life Inside differentiates itself through its focus on interactive video testimonials and seamless integration capabilities.
In an exclusive interaction with TFN, Charles Sinclair, co-founder & partnership manager at Life Inside told us that the company’s biggest competitors would be VideoAsk and Tolstoy.
Also when asked about whether the platform was AI-driven in any way, or should one have to record manually and rely solely on the in-house tool for distribution, Charles, acknowledging the current manual approach, responded, “It’s manual at this point…. Part of the new investment focuses on integrating AI into the platform.” He elaborated on the potential benefits, citing AI’s ability to “read through video content and generate additional content” and hinted at “potentially down the line” features.
However, this still raises the question: how will AI be implemented within Life Inside, and what impact will it have on the user experience and content creation process?
What we think about Life Inside?
Life Inside’s recent funding and its focus on interactive video marketing position the company as a potential player in the evolving digital marketing landscape. Its emphasis on user engagement and personalization could resonate with businesses seeking to connect with audiences on a deeper level. However, it remains to be seen how the company will deal with the competitive landscape and further differentiate itself from existing solutions.
One of the most interesting parts of the interview with Charles was his clarity of thought on many things including the “likely acquisition” in future. When he said, “it’s highly likely that there will be some sort of acquisition down the line, because several platforms and tools are emerging around this shared ambition – for companies to better connect with their audiences.”
It does make a lot of sense to a common man to have one robust tool rather than having multiple ones with respective unique features. And to reach that end, the only way is to acquire or to be acquired by a similar platform which shares a common ambition. “But given the shared vision,” he concluded, “I believe an acquisition is a strong possibility for the future.”
This speculation by Sinclair highlights the potential consolidation within the video marketing landscape, raising questions about how such mergers might impact the overall market and user experience.
