A group of investors headed by former Apple director Erik Stannow has invested 5 million Danish Kroner (app. USD 700,000) in Wired Relations. Erik Stannow becomes Chairman of the board. Wired Relations develops privacy software solutions and has been funded by the founders since they started development in the spring of 2018.
”We met every day at Espresso House, the local coffee shop. When they closed at midnight, we moved to Burger King around the corner and just kept on working,” Says Anders Linemann, co-founder and CEO of Wired Relations about the early days of the start-up.
Privacy software
Copenhagen-based Wired Relations is a legal tech company developing a SAAS solution for the automation of privacy compliance. They have secured major clients already, among them the largest media outlet in Denmark, JP/Politikens Hus, leading law firm Gorrissen Federspiel, tech-company Vivino and airline Atlantic Airways. This has been done by focusing on developing a great solution, before looking for investors.
”We are absolutely focused on developing a fantastic product. The buyers within this market are deeply rational. Moreover, we wanted to show product / market fit before looking for investors,” says Anders Linemann.
The investors
This extraordinary focus on the product and the market is what has secured the investment. Erik Stannow, on behalf of the group of investors, says:
”I believe in the founders. They have been extremely focused on developing a tremendous product and they have done so with the help of domain experts. From Apple I learned that you always make sure that you have a great product before you release it,” says Erik Stannow who becomes chairman of the board.
Smart money
The new investors will be directly involved in the company.
”We face two major tasks during the next two years. Customer acquisition and entering new markets. We are in Denmark, the UK, the Faroe Islands and Iceland today. However, our ambitions are much greater than that and Erik Stannow and the other investors will help us reach them. They provide experience within product development, sales, internationalization and partnership strategy. We look forward to utilizing those competencies,” says Anders Linemann.
The investors
- Erik Stannow: Worked as a director in Apple for 17 years. He retired in November 2018 and has since been an investor and Chairman of the board of Swedish Kaching Retail.
- Kenneth Nielsen: Has also been with Apple and Amazon. He returned to Denmark in 2014 as EVP of digitalization and ecommerce in Salling group, the largest Danish retailer. Since January 2020 he is a CDO (Chief digital officer) of Dr. Max, an international chain of pharmacies.
- Claus Klein-Ipsen has 25 years of sales and management experience within software and it-services. He has held management positions within Thomson Reuters and Sopra Steria.
About Wired Relations
- Founders: Bobby Nielsen, Gilli Haraldsen og Anders Linemann.
- Wired Relations develops and markets a SaaS solution which automates the process of compliance with privacy regulations, such as the GDPR of the EU and American CCPA.
- Companies pay a monthly fee for access to the solution.
- The founders began developing the solution in the spring of 2018
- The company has ten employees and will hire another five within the weeks to come
- Wired Relations aim to grow by a factor of at least 10 during 2020 and 2021.
More information and interviews: Co-founder, Anders Linemann, phone +45 5180 8263
