Styla GmbH receives millions for the expansion of artificial intelligence in the content management sector

Berlin/Potsdam, 13. May 2019: Styla is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) company with the goal of simplifying classic web content management through artificial intelligence. The innovative Content Experience Engine enables the automated creation of web content and replaces the current highly manual process in companies.

After very successful quarters in which major customers such as Henkel, OBI, Holy Group (among others, Joop and Strellson) and Douglas were acquired, the company has now completed another round of financing. Following financing in the last two years, the total investment in the company now amounts to more than 10 million euros.

The French lead investor Hi inov from Paris is investing a total of EUR 4.1 million together with the Seed and Growth Fund of BFB Brandenburg Kapital GmbH, a subsidiary of the Brandenburg Förderbank ILB and the existing shareholders of Surplus as well as the venture capitalist Senovo, which specialises in SaaS. With the financing, Styla GmbH wants to further expand its technology. This allows companies to create complete web pages without the use of IT or design resources, which can be displayed on all devices and enable complex representations and functions. The costs for creating homepages, landing and campaign pages, catalogue pages as well as theme worlds and magazines are reduced by up to 75 percent compared to conventional offers. At the same time, an API-based linking to popular shop platforms such as Salesforce Commerce Cloud, Hybris or Magento creates a seamless shopping opportunity within the created content. This allows all Styla content areas, from simple individual elements to complete websites, be administered in the simplest way and be used to increase sales.

Styla founder Philipp Rogge sees a fundamental change in the content sector: " Our customers want to deliver a consistent, yet visually sophisticated image and create high-impact content across multiple marketing channels. At the same time, large parts of this content should be personalized. Until recently, this would have taken expensive agencies and a lot of time - Styla now enables every marketing employee to do this work in no time."

Lead investor Wolfgang Krause, who recently moved to Hi inov in Paris and has now completed the Fund's first investment in Germany with Styla, is also enthusiastic: "We believe in Styla's management team and share their enthusiasm for their vision to realize a new generation of content management. That is why we are delighted to have the opportunity to closely support the company and its growth from this point on."

"Since 2012, Styla has been involved in the creation of automatic layouts, data-based decisions for the choice of inspiring content and the intelligent linking of e-commerce and content." explains Mathias Bosse, Senior Investment Manager at Brandenburg Kapital. "With the investment, the company can now further expand its technological advantage."

About Styla

Styla GmbH was founded by Philipp Rogge and Franz Riedl in Berlin in 2012. It operates a content management solution that covers large sections of the value chain in the content area via automatisms. As such, on each device, a solution adapted to the brand but agilely optimized and personalized for the end device is played out allowing customers to seamlessly shop. The automatisms make this possible without any need for IT or design resources. Companies such as Odlo, OBI, Douglas, Jack Wolfskin, Footlocker or Henkel work with Styla. Styla's portfolio investors include well-known investors, such as Atlantic Labs, Cherry Ventures, Bernard Arnault, Carmen Busquets, Surplus and Senovo. Contact: Philipp Rogge, philipp.rogge@styla.com

About Hi inov

Founded in 2012 by Pierre-Henri Dentressangle (Chairman) and Valérie Gombart (CEO), Hi inov SAS manages a capital amount of €160 million provided by corporations and entrepreneurs. Hi inov is looking for young innovative companies in France and Germany within the digital B2B economy, particularly in the areas of e-services, mobile Internet and IoT, point-of-sale and data technologies as well as software-as-a-service, which deal with the digitization of business processes. Hi inov also manages the SNCF Digital Ventures Fund, which invests in startups that can accelerate the digital transformation of the SNCF Group.

Hi inov's portfolio includes Commanders Act, Deepki, Famoco, Intercloud, Platform.sh, ForePaas, Prevision.io, Zelros and Deepomatic.

About Brandenburg Kapital GmbH/ Investment Bank of the State of Brandenburg

The Investment Bank of the State of Brandenburg (ILB) manages various equity funds that finance growth- and innovation-oriented companies based in and/or having a place of operation in Brandenburg. The funds for the Seed and Growth Fund, set up on behalf of the Brandenburg Ministry of Economic Affairs, are currently being provided from the European Regional Development Fund and from ILB's own resources. The investment activities of ILB have so far accompanied more than 200 companies on their growth path with around 220 million euros. Around 8,400 modern jobs have been created or have been secured. The funds managed by ILB cover the entire spectrum from venture capital financing in the start-up and early growth phase to mezzanine financing for established medium-sized companies. In addition, private investors have so far invested more than 400 million euros in the companies.

For more information, visit: www.brandenburg-kapital.de