Having raised $15 million, Owl Labs, CEO, Frank Weishaupt told me that their Series B round of funding would be put to good use – team expansion. The round, led by Spark Capital also includes funds from existing investors Matrix Partners and Playground Global.
Owl Labs’ funding announcement comes at a time of growth for the company. Last year, they reported growth in both customers and revenue. The goal is to now continue this momentum, elevate the video conferencing space, and accommodate an evolving digital workforce.
“We’re grateful for our investors and their support, we’re also excited to keep working to bring the meeting experience remote workers need and deserve to more workplaces. We appreciate our customers for their support and for how much we’re able to learn from how they use Meeting Owl”
“Our customers offer feedback and product suggestions that we’re constantly listening to and implementing. We share insights from our audience of customers, remote workers, and team leaders which helps us push ourselves and the rest of the industry forward. Our goal is to innovate the best possible solutions for a growing number of remote workers and their teams,” said Weishaupt.
Owl Labs projects growth
In line with Owl Labs’ mission to increase productivity and improve collaboration across a distributed workforce, they believe the rise of workplace mobility is showing no signs of slowing down. Their goal is to go above just connecting digital workers, Owl Labs wants remote workers to feel engaged and physically present during meetings.
The company achieves this by eliminating bulky hardware with its sleek IoT device, Meeting Owl. It acts as a smart device that provides a similar experience to being in the same room as other meeting attendees. Equipped with an intelligent 360° video conferencing camera, Meeting Owl integrates with platforms like Zoom, Google Hangouts, and Microsoft Teams.
According to Owl Labs, in 2018, Meeting Owl was used in more than 450,000 meetings worldwide. In line with plans to expand its team and stronghold in Europe, Owl Labs is predicting over a 20x increase in usage within the next two years. That translates to more than 10 million Meeting Owl meetings.
Addressing the needs of a scattered workforce
Owl labs’ Global State of Work report found, even if employees aren’t working remotely full-time, more than half of employees around the world work from home at least once per week. At Owl Labs, they seem to live and breathe optimizing the work-from-home experience, which Weishaupt reinforced:
“Remote work isn’t the odd occurrence anymore — it’s become a way of working that savvy employers and those in the video conferencing space should keep a close eye on. Specifically, video conferencing needs more tools to support hybrid teams, where some people are working in the office and some work remotely, to help remote folks feel more included and engaged in team meetings. And as more companies outfit meeting rooms with video conferencing hardware and software to make meetings more productive, solutions that are fast, easy, and intuitive, will be the winners,” said Weishaupt.
