Former Just-Eat CEO invest knowledge and money in Planday

When Planday received an investment from Creandum back in 2014, they kept a part of the investment open for the right Co-Investor. They found Klaus Nyengaard, who previously led the Danish startup Just-Eat towards an international market, and therefore was a perfect fit. The experienced entrepreneur and business angel must now help Planday, with their continued growth adventure.

Klaus Nyengaard is one of the most active business angels in the Nordics. He has gained experience from his time with Just-Eat, which went public in the spring of 2014, Church Desk, which is a collaboration platform for the world’s churches, a communication platform for the construction industry called Genius and his latest success is with Sekoia, which recently landed an investment of DKK 20 million.

“Klaus Nyengaard has a great insight in working with software-as-a-service (SaaS) and the process of scaling an organization through different phases. His experience is definitely something we can benefit from,” explained Christian Brøndum, CEO and Co-Founder of Planday.

Simplified shift planning

The vast majority of small and medium-sized startups are still doing their internal organization, through homemade organization blackboards and spreadsheets. It is time consuming, and the smallest mistake can quickly become costly for companies.

Planday has developed an online staff roster system for all types of businesses, which uses a flexible workforce, such as restaurants, hotels, shops, call centers and gyms. Planday’s system automates a lot of the time consuming and manual work, which many small and medium-sized startups struggle with.

“We feel that there is a very large and so far unmet need, among small and medium-sized businesses, with employees with varying working hours. Our goal is to become a global leader in this kind of shift planning, and we are going for an annual growth of 100 percent,” says Christian Brøndum.

Klaus Nyengaard is not going to have an active role in Planday, but he will act as a sparring partner for Christian Brøndum and the other directors of Planday.

“We are well on the way to internationalize our business and expect to expand to three new markets this year. KIaus Nyengaard has already been through this journey with Just-Eat, which has been a huge success. We will succeed as well,” commented Cristian Brøndum and expressed that Klaus Nyengaard is going to help them obtain new investments.

“We cannot deny the need for even more money, if we are going to continue our growth. Even though we have a reasonable revenue and earnings at the moment. Klaus Nyengaard has a very good reputation among European investors.”

Klaus Nyengaard brings international experience

After the sale of Just-Eat, Klaus Nyengaard devoted a part of his time to invest in promising tech companies. One thing these startups has in common is that they deal with workflow and online marketplaces, and therefore Planday fits well with his portfolio.

“Planday is an exciting startup, which has all the possible conditions for becoming a global success. It was an opportunity that I would not let go,” disclosed Klaus Nyengaard and continued about the criteria that must be met, if he is to be interested in investing time and money in an idea.

“For me to invest in a startup, it must have the potential to become a success in Europe. The team also has to be competent, trustworthy and the chemistry has to work. Finally, I need to understand the industry. It is a few simple criteria, but they work wonders for me.” 

Planday is definitely looking towards international growth. The Planday team has moved office, and the company is now getting twice the space for its 53 employees, which is a part of their growth strategy.

Of these, 25 joined the team in 2014 and Christian Brøndum expects to hire as many in 2015. They need all the employees to service the 50,000 employees, who use Planday at their workspace.

Finding the right investor

Planday first met Creandum during their stay at SCALEit in 2013, a week’s stay in the famous Silicon Valley. The team joined up with Innovation Centre Denmark, and toured the visionary entrepreneur city.

“Finding and selecting the right VC takes time and many meetings. For us as a company, it demanded that we learned to pitch our startup and its potential,” said Christian Brøndum and continued:

“Creandum immediately understood what we wanted to do with Planday, and that we had a unique technology. Teamwork, values, ownership and all other essential details went into a higher unity. They understand us, they understand SaaS and they think globally.”

The investment amounted to around DKK 20 million, and Klaus Nyengaard has added a few extra million, together with his knowledge and experience.