On EQT Ventures’ investment in Vev, where professionals co-create web experiences with creative & technical freedom
Today, Oslo-based Vev announced its €5m Seed led by EQT Ventures, with participation from previous investors Sagene Tech Ventures and Skyfall Ventures. Vev is a collaborative visual editor for developers, designers and content creators to build and publish interactive websites and digital content.
Before becoming investors, I spent a few years in marketing, Ted founded agencies creating hundreds of websites, Martin supported some of Europe’s most exciting start-ups as CPO and advisor, and Antoine spent a fair share of time in the intersection between marketing and engineering.
Getting to know Vev, we realised our pasts have one thing in common, the importance of collaboration and creating outstanding experiences on the web. But we all faced different challenges in doing so, let’s share some of our past frustrations:
Sandra (the ex marketer and brand manager) – As a “content producer” I often felt stuck in the middle. On the one side, I had the no-code tools with limited freedom, and on the other side tools with full freedom, but requiring technical skills. So basically, I had to choose whether to compromise on creative freedom or speed, and in a very competitive world where the web is the face of the company I didn’t want to have to choose either.
Ted (the ex Creative Director and founder of digital agencies) – Most agencies combine creating large projects spanning over multiple months, with smaller, quicker ones. As the smaller ones still require a designer/developer duo, they often steal resources from the larger ones, creating a resource planning mess.
Martin (the product leader and publisher) –Teams are too often stuck in silos and forced to follow a workflow dictated by their tools instead of being empowered to co-create the way they want. And the CMSes we use are too often beholden to their templates instead of allowing true creative freedom.
Antoine (the ex analytics middleman) – When digging into the world of web design, I quickly had flashbacks from my past life as an analyst sitting between technical and non-technical teams. In a world where everyone is used to their own processes and interfaces, orchestrating collaboration between profiles with different sets of skills and technical expertise is really hard.
Luckily a few years later, we found our solution in Vev.
Vev is a collaborative visual editor for developers, designers and content creators to build and launch interactive websites and digital content. It is used by agencies and large organizations, ranging from Netflix to The Economist, and also appeals to freelancers — the next generation of creators.
Why we absolutely love Vev ❤️:
1.Vev brings previously siloed teams into one tool for seamless collaboration
Vev creates streamlined workflows for creating and launching interactive web content, appealing to all sides of the web design process. By creating features which satisfy each user profile, it’s apparent the Vev team isn’t only thinking about the designer, the developer or the marketer, but all three.
2. Vev combines the control and speed of no-code with the flexibility and creativity of code
The combination of design-, code-, and content editor in the same platform means users can produce websites with complete creative freedom for design and content, with the flexibility to edit and create code components when needed.
Ultimately, Vev enables every role to spend time on what they are passionate and good at!
3. Build in Vev and publish to your existing CMS!
Vev users can one-click publish finished websites and content directly to any CMS (such as WordPress), backend, or hosting provider. This opens up for using Vev without the cost of switching CMS.
4. Ambitious team knowing the industry inside out- set out to empower the next generation of creators! 💪
With 1.8 billion websites, it is vital to stand out from the crowd. A team who knows this very well, is the team behind Vev. The Vev team, led by the co-founder and CEO Tine Karlsen, met back in 2013 at a digital design agency where they witnessed the persistent problem of developers being siloed from designers and content creators. To solve this, they founded Vev.
Since our first interaction with Tine, Nicolay and Fredrik, we have been continuously impressed by the teams’ drive and ambition to empower the next generation of creators by creating the new industry standard for visual web design.
We couldn’t be more excited to team up with them to go after this opportunity (if you also want to be a part of the journey apply here).
Shoutouts to Antoine, Martin, Ted, Anton, Henrik for joining forces to work on the deal, and to Motherbrain for sourcing Vev. Pst! If you ever want to chat about the no-code/low-code movement, ping our superstar Antoine!
