We’re pleased to report that our 2019 Mobility.Pioneers winners MOTIONTAG have landed a six-figure investment from Wayra, the corporate venture capital arm of Telefonica. The parties have also agreed a strategic partnership that will allow the Spanish mobile communications giant to help improve the Berlin-based startup’s product.
Wayra and MOTIONTAG first met at Mobility.Pioneers two years ago. Wayra were there to see the startup’s victory in the third edition this February, where they were one of our event partners. The relationship between the two strengthened further at Pioneers ’19 in Vienna, where Wayra Head of Portfolio Alberto Pérez Arranz acted as the startup’s mentor.
As we explained in more detail here following Mobility.Pioneers, MotionTag offers software that offers transport providers the most accurate mobility demand data on the market, using the sensor technology found in mobile devices. The collaboration with Telefonica could take this to the next level of accuracy by adding the Spanish giant’s mobile network data to the recipe.
“Working with Wayra will allow us and Telefonica to measure transport usage patterns much more accurately than has been possible up until now,” commented MOTIONTAG CEO Stephan Leppler.
Having concluded its seed round of €1.3 million in January 2018, MOTIONTAG is seeing the Wayra deal as a ‘Pre Series A’ financial injection. In the short term this will be used to strengthen the sales and development teams. For Wayra it is exactly in line with their policy of investing in startups that can impact Telefonica’s core business.
In more good news for former winners of our industry-focused events, personalized vitamins startup Baze has closed a $6 million Series A funding round. Baze was the winner of our first Health.Pioneers event in Amsterdam in 2017.
The investment is similar to the MOTIONTAG deal in that it was led by a company with product synergies – in this case established American supplement manufacturer Nature’s Way. This lines up well with the Berlin startup’s plan to focus fully on the United States market in the near future.
“We are at a pivotal growth point for Baze — it’s exciting to see how our offerings are evolving with the needs of our consumers and the world,” said Baze Co-Founder Philipp Schulte. “The partnership with Nature’s Way is an amazing stamp of approval from the quality leader in the US supplement market.”
Earlier this summer Pioneers Festival 2016 winners Pleo closed a $56 million Series B round.
To guess who might be the next startup to announce an investment, click here for the list of all Pioneers event winners!
