Crunchbase News
By Chris Metinko
Feb 9, 2021
Scope closed a $2.25 million seed round as the company looks to help small and medium-sized businesses become more tech enabled.
The round comes less than a year after the San Francisco-based company announced a $1.1 million pre-seed round and includes investments from Craft Ventures and Indicator Ventures, as well as individual investors.
Scope’s platform is designed to solve the headache of integration that many SMBs face when buying new software — similar to the services Deloitte and Accenture do for large enterprises. The company has a network of expert engineers and service providers that can help smaller businesses get up and running and streamline the software implementation process.
“COVID has shown a light on how important it is to be tech enabled, especially for SMBs,” said founder and CEO Xander Oltmann. “If you are not tech enabled you are going to get lost.”
Growing
Scope entered the market last March and has grown its network of freelance experts from about 15 to more than 100 as demand only increased after the pandemic started and brick-and-mortar shops were left scrambling to take their businesses online, Oltmann said.
Even before the pandemic shined a light on the need for businesses to change, Scope was being pulled into the market, Oltmann said.
Brian Murray, managing director at Craft Ventures, said the problems of integration and implementation have hindered businesses for years.
“I have lived the problem of software integration,” Murray said. “The technology implementation process is always more tricky than it should be.”
Expanding go-to market
Scope continues to grow its vendor network, which sells Scope’s services as part of the software selling process. Oltmann said the average implementation cost with Scope is about $3,500.
While the company will continue to focus on helping SMBs with their implementation needs, the company could eventually move upstream and sell to enterprises, Murray said.
“I think this is a great opportunity,” Murray said. “Many great companies start off by serving small and medium-sized businesses … but I do think this model could apply up the stack.”
Illustration: Li-Anne Dias.
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