Landbot, a chatbot creation platform headquartered in Barcelona, has secured $8 million in Series A funding. The investment round was spearheaded by Swanlaab, a Spanish-Israeli venture capital firm, with additional backing from CDTI, Spain's public innovation agency. Existing investors, including Nauta Capital, Encomenda, and Bankinter, also contributed to this funding cycle.

The company was previously featured in 2018 following a $2.2 million seed funding round, at which time it served over 900 customers. Landbot has since expanded its customer base to approximately 2,200 paying clients, with a total user base—including those on free plans—reaching around 50,000.

Since receiving its seed funding, the company has experienced a tenfold increase in recurring revenue and anticipates continued growth, supported by this latest financial injection.

The company reports that the recent coronavirus pandemic has significantly increased the need for conversational landing pages, as businesses across various sectors seek to automate growing volumes of digital customer interactions without substantial investments in internal IT infrastructure.

Landbot’s clientele includes both small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as teams and divisions within larger organizations. Notable customers include Nestlé, MediaMarkt, Coca-Cola, Cepsa, PcComponentes, and Prudential.

“We are observing considerable success in sectors such as eCommerce, Financial Services, and Marketing Agencies,” states Jiaqi Pan, CEO & co-founder of Landbot, in a discussion with TechCrunch. “Specifically, the eCommerce sector has demonstrated the most significant growth since the onset of COVID-19, with a doubling of customers within that industry.”

The newly acquired funds will be allocated to expanding Landbot’s team throughout 2021, with current staffing at 40 employees. Hiring efforts will focus on bolstering the sales, marketing, and engineering departments.

The startup, which initially launched its “no code” chatbot builder in 2017, previously moved its headquarters from Valencia to Barcelona to facilitate recruitment.

Since Landbot’s inception, the “no code/low code” movement has gained substantial momentum, driven by the demand for increased productivity and digital services that often exceed the capacity of businesses’ internal technical expertise.

This has led to the development of service-building tools that provide non-technical personnel with access to customizable technological capabilities.

The pandemic has further accelerated this trend, and user-friendly platforms like Landbot are benefiting from the increased demand.

Landbot notes that, in addition to competing with other conversational chatbot builders such as San Francisco-based ManyChat, it is also attracting customers who are looking to replace traditional web forms with more interactive chat interfaces.

Its drag-and-drop chatbot builder enables users to create what Landbot describes as “an immersive web page experience” incorporating GIFs and visual elements to enhance user engagement—making it an attractive alternative for SMEs seeking to replace outdated static forms with a familiar messaging app-style experience.

“Regarding our primary competitor in the no-code space, ManyChat represents our most direct competition for chatbot functionality. However, given the number of customers utilizing our platform to replace their forms, we also compete with form builders like Typeform,” explains Pan, referencing another Barcelona-based startup focused on “conversational” and “interactive” data collection.

Landbot recently acquired Morph.AI, an India-based chat-based marketing automation tool, to enhance lead generation from social media, websites, and advertising, and to expand its presence in the Asian market.

Currently, 90% of Landbot’s customers are located internationally, with 60% originating from the U.S., U.K., and Germany.

In a statement regarding the Series A funding, Juan Revuelta, general partner of Swanlaab, commented: “Landbot’s strength lies in the simplicity of its drag-and-drop solution. This accessibility is crucial, allowing businesses of all sizes to utilize the product effectively. Smaller companies often lack the resources to address customer service challenges or implement extensive marketing campaigns.

“Landbot empowers all businesses to engage in seamless conversations with customers and gather the data needed for informed decision-making and growth. The team achieved remarkable results in 2020, and we are pleased to support them in assisting more businesses this year.”