Month: November 2022

Vibranium.VC invested in PicUP in the seed round. This startup is an AI-powered optimization and personalization platform for outbound sales and customer service calls. PicUP became the sixth company in the Vibranium.VC portfolio alongside other promising B2B SaaS solutions.

PicUP is an Israeli-based startup that partnered with Skywell Capital Partners and Vibranium.VC in this round. Its technology adds personalized digital layers to outbound calls, which enables organizations to inform their customers about who calls them and why. The solution also empowers the voice channel with digital features to improve communication with the customer over the phone. PicUp’s mission is to transform phone communication, and especially business-to-consumer service and sales calls, to become more transparent and respectful for customers, and more efficient for organizations.

The investment will allow PicUP to develop a new platform and acquire more tier-1 customers – all part of the journey to transform cold-calling into personalized digital calls and create the future of business-to-customer communications.

PicUP will allocate investments toward R&D and further platform development, with emphasis on expanding its usage of new digital channels like WhatsApp API and RCS messaging. It will also seek to foster go-to-market and growth, signing more deals with leading telcos, banks, and insurers in Europe and the US.

Lior Shacham, CEO, PicUP: “We are excited to partner with Vibranium.VC to keep developing our platform and bring this top-tier calling experience to more leading brands in Europe and the US. Vibranium.VC’s expertise and knowledge makes it the ideal partner to help us grow, expand our presence, and establish new partnerships.”
PicUP’s top clients include Vodafone (Italy & Portugal), Claro (Latam) and other tier-1 EU telecom brands, along with clients from banking and insurance industries.

Zamir Shukho, CEO,
Vibranium.VC: “We think that PicUP has a unique approach to enhance the operation of call centers and service providers. Their technology can enable deeper interaction with a client and create the next level of experience for businesses and consumers. We see PicUP as a team of professionals with growth ambitions and we are happy they joined our portfolio to explore new markets and opportunities.”
Earlier this year PicUp was also pitching at SUMMERSAAS 2022, an online conference for SaaS companies from Emerging Europe, Finland & Israel, organized by Flashpoint Venture Capital where caught an eye of Vibranium.VC.
We are happy to welcome PicUP on board and confident that Vibranium.VC’s experience, expertise and network will contribute to the startup’s growth and business scaling worldwide.

The Vibranium.VC fund is always looking for the next big thing – not only when it comes to revenue, but also in terms of market disruption and positive societal impact. With that in mind, Vibranium.VC is excited to put the spotlight on its next portfolio company – iSchoolConnect.

iSchoolConnect is an online admissions platform that makes the admissions process globally accessible and hassle-free for international students. Its B2B platform – iSchool360 – is designed to support academic institutions at every step of the way and enable them to make better admissions and engagement decisions while saving time and money.

iSchoolConnect partnered with Vibranium.VC and Decart Ventures, the latter also investing $500K in this round. The startup’s primary focus is on expanding its B2B SaaS vertical, which is a gamechanger for multiple stakeholders in the enrollment industry. iSchoolConnect will deploy funds to acquire the right talent and to improve visibility among its audience, including large and reputable universities and online education platforms.

Ashish Fernando, Founder & CEO iSchoolConnect: “We believe that Vibranium.VC ethos and investment philosophy was a great fit for iSchoolConnect. Since Vibranium.VC is largely focused on IT B2B SaaS businesses, we were excited about gaining access to a wealth of strategic and operational insights that will potentially help us accelerate growth. Our well-designed product is easy to adopt and integrate and provides our customers with reliable analytics to boost decision making. We hope to become the Booking.com for Education.”

The startup is already active and expanding in India, the US and Thailand, with plans to venture into other Asian markets. Western Governors University, Kaplan, MozaikPlay are among iSchoolConnect’s top clients. It was also one of the finalists for the PIEoneer Awards 2022 in the Higher Ed Digital Innovation of the Year category.

Zamir Shukho, CEO Vibranium.VC: “The field of education is still very conservative and needs a lot of changes to adapt to a new world, especially after COVID-19. iSchoolConnect helps to make universities more technological and digital by assisting students around the world get into the best schools. On top of that the startup provides several layers of additional services that allow more students to graduate and find good jobs based on their level of education. We like iSchoolConnect’s diverse team with a global vision, and we hope to contribute to their fast growth in the US market.”

The Vibranium.VC team is happy to welcome iSchoolConnect to its portfolio!

Vibranium.VC’s Softlanding program is a free of charge practical online program for talented, active, and ambitious entrepreneurs ready to relocate their business to the US and enter a fast-growing market.

The Softlanding program is designed for B2B SaaS startups wanting to move to the US and ready to work with top Silicon Valley experts. Twenty-five startups that meet the evaluation criteria will receive support in achieving product-market fit and fundraising in the US.

The program for selected startups will last for about 3 months with two key stages – Bootcamp (5 days) and Pre-Accelerator (3 months).

US experts from different fields will navigate startup teams through all the procedures and processes for opening a company abroad, give tips on getting into local accelerators, and provide support in the implementation of a step-by-step plan for relocation to the US.

Valentina Pidgaina, Head of pipeline and partnerships at Vibranium.VC: “The launch of our Softlanding program marks an important milestone for Vibranium.VC , where we act not only as a Venture Fund but as an active player in the Silicon Valley innovation ecosystem, supporting founders eager to enter the US market.
Based on our experience, we know how to build a business. We mentored hundreds of startup teams throughout our acceleration programs, and we helped them build operations, sales, marketing, and important partnerships. Our program was carefully designed to contribute to startup success on US soil and help teams with faster product-market fit and scalable revenues.”

Applications are accepted until December 30, 2022 on the official website – https://vibranium.vc/softlanding