matik Secures $20M to Revolutionize Customer Presentations

Matik Secures $20 Million in Series A Funding

Matik, the developer of automated, data-driven software designed for the customization of Google Slides and PowerPoint presentations, has successfully completed a $20 million Series A funding round. This investment was spearheaded by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z).

Additional Investors

Participation in this financing round also included Menlo Ventures, BoxGroup, and Oceans Ventures. This brings the total funding for the San Francisco-based startup to over $23 million since its establishment in 2019.

A cohort of angel investors also contributed, including GTM Fund, Keenan Rice (a founding member of Looker’s team), Allison Pickens (formerly COO of Gainsight), Elena Verna (former SVP of Growth at SurveyMonkey), and Jon Herstein (current CCO at Box).

Targeting Data-Driven Teams

Matik’s core product is geared towards organizations that heavily rely on data, particularly sales and customer success teams. It streamlines the creation of tailored presentations, such as quarterly business reviews, pricing proposals, and concise summaries.

According to Nikola Mijic, co-founder and CEO of Matik, the platform functions by automatically importing data from diverse sources.

Dynamic Content Transformation

The startup asserts that its technology converts static content – encompassing text, charts, images, and tables – into a dynamic format. This automation alleviates the burden of manual data compilation, formatting, and extraction from various systems like Salesforce CRMs, Looker BI tools, and data warehouses including Redshift, BigQuery, and Snowflake.

Presentations generated through Matik remain “completely editable” due to the dynamic nature of the content.

Efficiency and Strategic Focus

Mijic explains that Matik significantly reduces the time required for presentation creation, transforming hours of work into mere minutes. This allows teams to dedicate more time to strategic initiatives.

The company focuses on serving enterprise and mid-market clients, aiming to reduce costs and improve customer acquisition and retention rates.

Significant Time Savings

“Individuals often dedicate four to six hours weekly to crafting data-driven narratives, a process we condense to just a few minutes,” Mijic stated in an interview with TechCrunch. “This translates to a savings of 200 to 300 hours annually, freeing up resources for more strategic endeavors and enhanced customer engagement.”

Licensing and Expansion

Matik operates on a licensing model, with customers frequently expanding their usage by purchasing additional licenses for different teams.

Growing Customer Base

Within a short timeframe, Matik has attracted a notable clientele, including Glassdoor, KeepTruckin, Handshake, and Hover. Handshake, for example, has reportedly saved 4,500 hours since implementing the platform.

While specific revenue figures were not disclosed, Mijic indicated that Matik has experienced 3x growth since the beginning of the year and anticipates a 4-5x increase by year-end compared to 2020. The company also boasts a “zero churn” rate.

Origins at LinkedIn

The concept for Matik originated during Mijic’s time at LinkedIn, where he supported sales and customer success teams. He frequently assisted with last-minute presentation requests, often involving extensive data queries.

He developed an internal solution to streamline the presentation-building process for the company’s go-to-market teams and subsequently led a redesign of that solution.

Founding Matik

Mijic then collaborated with Zak Stein, an early employee at Box, to establish Matik and address this challenge on a broader scale.

Future Development

Looking forward, Matik intends to investigate applying its technology to email and “any repetitive task requiring personalization.” The company also plans to extend its product offering to teams beyond sales and marketing.

“Storytelling extends beyond presentations,” Mijic noted. “We can leverage the core functionality of our product to enhance other types of narratives.”

Hiring Plans

The company currently employs 13 individuals and aims to increase its headcount to 20 by the end of the year.

Investor Perspectives

Kristina Shen, a general partner at a16z, who will join Matik’s board, highlighted the platform’s ability to automate a “hugely manual and painful process” for numerous business functions: the personalization and updating of data within presentations.

She described the user experience as “incredibly seamless and intuitive,” enabling users to create complete presentations “with just a few inputs and clicks.”

“Customer feedback for Matik is consistently positive, demonstrating a clear lack of viable alternatives in the market,” Shen stated via email. “Given the widespread use and ongoing need for data-rich presentations as a key storytelling tool, we believe Matik’s long-term potential is substantial.”

Seed Funding and Market Fit

Naomi Ionita, a partner at Menlo Ventures, led Matik’s $3 million seed round in October 2019. She was attracted by the team’s authenticity and the strong product-market fit.

Ionita observed that individuals often invest significant effort in creating these presentations, gathering data from various sources to craft a compelling and personalized narrative, and then refining it based on changing data points.

The resulting time savings are an immediate benefit, according to Ionita.

“Furthermore, this automation enables companies to expand their account coverage,” she explained to TechCrunch. “Customer-facing teams consistently report that personalized interactions significantly impact expansion and renewal opportunities.”