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"Editor\u2019s note: This article by Nina Fowler originally appeared on VentureVillage, the Berlin-based online magazine for digital innovation in Europe.\r\n\r\nGerman entrepreneur Marco Boerries\u2019 stealth business app platform has attracted $38m in Series A funding (PDF) from top European and US investors before it even launches a product.\r\n\r\nNumberFour AG, the company behind the upcoming platform, is headquartered in Berlin with offices in Hamburg and Palo Alto. About 40 developers are currently working on the project. \r\n\r\nSo far there\u2019s little more than a landing page, but the company promises to give small businesses \u201Cinstant access to the tools, capabilities and insights normally only available to larger companies\u201D using a suite of small and versatile apps.\r\n\r\nThe funding round it announced today is led by by Index Ventures and joined by New York merchant bank Allen &amp;amp; Company, Deutsche Telekom, early Google investor Andy Bechtolsheim, Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang, Klaus Hommels and his investment firm Lakestar, Lars Hinrichs and Simon Levene (also an early investor in ResearchGate).\r\n\r\nA big Series A for Berlin \u2013 and Europe\r\n\r\nThat\u2019s a large Series A round for a European tech company. For a little perspective, Spotify raised a $21.6m Series A in 2008, mobile payment company iZettle raised $11.2m \u2013 also led by Index Ventures \u2013 in 2011 and Rovio $42m in 2011.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nBoerries (pictured right), 45, spent about a decade permanently based in Silicon Valley after selling his first company StarDivision, which built the software that became OpenOffice, to Bechtolsheim\u2019s Sun Microsystems in 1999. He sold his third company VerdiSoft to Yahoo in 2005 and spent four years as a top mobile exec for the internet giant before leaving to return to Germany in February 2009.\r\n\r\nThat\u2019s not long before he started work on NumberFour. \u201CI\u2019ve actually been thinking about this problem for the last 25 years,\u201D Boerries told us this week \u2013 he\u2019d made a first foray into accounting tools for small businesses back at StarDivision but decided the timing wasn\u2019t right.\r\n\r\nSmall business market worth the risk\r\n\r\nNumberFour\u2019s apps will cover productivity, communication, sales, production, procurement, delivery, reservation and financial tools, and run on smartphones, tablets and the web. The company\u2019s LinkedIn profile describes it as an \u201Copen software platform for business application development\u201D, which suggests plans to release an API.\r\n\r\nThe company isn\u2019t commenting at this point on pricing and availability other than to say it will be \u201Cvery affordable and it will be available when it\u2019s ready\u201D.\r\n\r\nNumberFour estimates there are over 200 million small businesses worldwide and that those with under 20 employees make up 90 per cent of businesses globally. That, plus Boerries\u2019 experience, seems to be enough to convince investors \u2013 many of whom have worked with Boerries before \u2013 that it\u2019s worth the risk on a product that could still flop at launch.\r\n\r\n\u201CFrom a technology perspective, small businesses are the most underserved market in the world,\u201D Index Ventures partner Mike Volpi, the round\u2019s lead investor, said in a statement today. \u201CNumberFour is the first comprehensive business platform that offers amazing technology, wrapped in apps with a stunningly simple user interface.\u201D\r\n\r\nBoerries hasn\u2019t taken much venture capital for previous ventures \u2013 in part because it wasn\u2019t so much the done thing back in the \u201990s. It\u2019s too early to tell if it\u2019ll pay off this time.\r\n\r\n\u201COf course, I\u2019m very aware of the responsibilities for us,\u201D he said. \u201CThese guys trust us a great deal. They\u2019re putting their money where their mouth is by writing a cheque that\u2019s really, really big for something they are convinced will be successful \u2013 we will make sure when we ship it we deliver on that trust.\u201D\r\n\r\nImages via Thinkstock and HackFwd"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/06/27/numberfour-lands-38m-series-a-for-its-business-apps-platform-which-isnt-publicly-available-yet/>