FundedByMe interviews Success Story Intellego
A few weeks before Christmas we had the opportunity to sit down with Claes Lindahl, the founder and CEO of Intellego. Claes launched his crowdfunding campaign with FundedByme in 2017. Looking to raise funds and get exposure for one of Intellego’s latest ventures; Smartsun.
Intellego develops wearable UV indicators, where Smartsun is the brand for the consumer side, that allows you to monitor your sun exposure through their UV-stickers or UV-bracelets. Claes came up with the idea behind the brand after suffering from sun burns on his own, having to do regularly checkups for signs of skin cancer and even had surgery. The basic technology behind the product was acquired by Claes from an University and at the same time he founded Intellego which owns all the IP rights to the technology. After Intellego had acquired the technology the development was moved to Sweden where the work of designing a ready product was conducted.
But why did Claes end up choosing crowdfunding to finance his business idea?
Before getting to know Daniel and the idea behind FundedByMe, Claes had little or no knowledge of crowdfunding, especially when referring to equity crowdfunding. The first time he was introduced to this concept of financing he had joined Daniel at a FundedByMe-event in Malmö, where he was allowed to pitch his company and business idea to FundedByMe’s investment network.
After his pitch, Claes was approached by a man from the audience who was intrigued by his presentation and wanted to learn more. Claes promised to email him some additional information. By the end of the night, Claes had received an email from the man reminding him about that additional information. Within a couple of weeks that same man had manage to acquire all the necessary funding, 3.2 MSEK in funding, without Claes even having launched his official campaign.
But inspired by the power of the FundedByMe network, he decided to go ahead with his campaign anyway. The main reason being the marketing advantages, the network and the great publicity that comes with the FundedByMe brand.
“Doing the campaign through FBM was not only great from a financial and marketing perspective but also due to the vast network we got through FBM, which helps us with funding, marketing, sales and more.” — Claes Lindahl
Since their campaign, Intellego has been doing really well. Besides launching and closing a successful campaign, with 56 new ambassadors, they have managed to increase their revenue with over 600% from 2017 to 2018. Today they have 3 employees within marketing, sales and distribution. The Smartsun products are now available to be purchased through their e-commerce and will soon hit the retailer markets.
What we at FundedByMe have learned from cases like Intellego is the value behind marketing. In many cases we introduce FundedByMe as part marketing platform because of its core value to our business. In most cases, to close successfully, you must market not only your company but the campaign itself in order to be able to reach new ambassadors and investors. The FundedByMe sales and market team will therefore help you guide your through your campaign and come up with what will be the best startegy for your campaign.
If you want to learn more about Intellego check out their webiste www.intellego-technologies.com and to find other exciting cases make sure to visit www.fundedbyme.com where we launch new campaigns every week.
