Successful funding for Socialwave: Munich startup receives high six-digit investment

Berlin/Munich, March 17, 2016—Munich-based startup company Socialwave (wifi.socialwave.de), a provider of professional hotspot solutions in the retail and hotel and catering sectors, has received new funding. Business angel club Angel Gate, Swiss Club Deal AG with its members, and other financiers have invested in total a high six-digit amount. Socialwave was founded in 2013 under the umbrella of company builder etventure and now has more than 1,000 companies as its corporate clients, including franchises of Rewe and Edeka, Segafredo and the Enchilada Group (dean&david).

Investors from Club Deal AG include Christian Legros, who has already structured a number of well-known companies as leading investor, and other well-known business angels like Dr. Cornelius Boersch, founder and director of global venture builder Mountain Partners, Matthias Hunecke, founder of Brille24.de and Thomas Bank, co-founder and director of various startups, who will also support Socialwave operationally in key account sales activities in future. etventure, represented by its founder and CEO Philipp Depiereux, is one of the investors.

“We are delighted that we have been able to convince so many well-known investors of our business idea. Thanks to the support of our investors, we now have access to fresh capital as well as a large pool of entrepreneurial experience,” explained Mario Schilling, founder and CEO of Socialwave, adding: “With the help of the funding, we want to develop our offer in the area of offline analytics and see the company grow steadily.”

Legally watertight hotspot solution and marketing and analysis tool

Using Socialwave’s hotspot solution, retailers and caterers can provide their customers with free WLAN. By logging in to the hotspot via email address or Facebook, it provides retailers simultaneously with digital access to customers and the opportunity to tie them in to viral marketing. The provider is also protected from legal consequences, as the WLAN user is explicitly identified.

New Socialwave investor Christian Legros is also confident about the business model: “I am enthusiastic about Socialwave’s innovative concept and the young, creative startup team. The majority of customers now expect free network access—whether on their daily shopping trip or in a restaurant. But retailers and caterers don’t often meet their customers’ needs. With Socialwave, retailers can satisfy this need and simultaneously use the acquired data for marketing and analysis purposes.”

It is intended to further develop the Socialwave analysis technology in future, so the retail and catering sectors can acquire more in-depth insights into their customers. In this way, advertising and marketing activities can be tailored more closely to the relevant customers. In particular, the offer in the offline analytics area will be further developed through an add-on for the hotspot WLAN router. As customers who are not logged in can also be captured anonymously, detailed visitor statistics, such as length of stay, return rate or the customer’s position in the shop can be prepared for point of sale.

Philipp Depiereux, founder and CEO of etventure, explained: “As a company builder and digital consultant, we are highly involved in the digital transformation of many industries. From our observations, we have ascertained that, as with other sectors, retailing still finds it difficult to benefit from the opportunities offered by digitization. Socialwave’s business model doesn’t just offer customers added value, it creates analysis opportunities for bricks-and-mortar retailers that have been up to now reserved for e-commerce, and simultaneously opens up a digital communication channel to customers.”