Doo.net announces Beta Launch and Series A Funding

doo.net today announces the open-beta launch of the first cloud-based service that collects documents from all sources, intelligently organizes and stores them in a single, secure place. With doo.net’s native Apps, documents become self-organized and accessible on all relevant platforms in a readily available alternative to the paper document. They are easier than ever to find, work with, and share with family, friends and colleagues.

doo.net automatically collects documents from your hard drive as well as from online services such as your email account or Google Docs, which will be integrated until launch at the end of June. The documents are then automatically organized through intelligent algorithms that use text recognition to identify and assign keywords, which are attached to the documents as tags. Once tagged, doo.net organizes the documents by such tag categories as people, organization, place, and document type, making your documents a cinch to locate. Every version of every document is backed up and secured with technologies such as Oauth 2.0 authentication and continual encrypted communication and storage. And because it’s a native Apps, doo.net lets you find the right documents in seconds.

Founders Frank Thelen, Marc Sieberger and Alex Koch have a proven track record of creating disruptive businesses in industries with established, dominant companies and designing innovative products and services inspired by their own personal challenges. Thelen, a perpetual list maker who co-created the Wunderlist productivity management tool, came up with the idea of doo.net in response to his wife prodding him over the growing stacks of unpaid paper invoices collecting on his desk. His response: start a company that aimed to not only make paper documents a thing of the past, but one that organized and easily located and secured all of his documents.

doo.net has also announced that it has raised a new round of Series A funding, which boosts the company’s total investments to $10 million. The round is led by Target Partners, who join DuMont Venture, e42 Ventures and prominent angel investors, including Lars Hinrichs, founder of Xing and HackFwd, and Professor Dr. Dres. h.c. Hermann Simon, the Simon-Kucher & Partners founder and chairman who’s been dubbed “the Peter Drucker of Europe.”

“Consumers have enthusiastically adopted cloud-based document storage and sharing solutions, but until now there has been no way to collect all documents in one central place and intelligently organize them based on their content,” says doo.net’s co-founder and CEO Frank Thelen. “With doo.net, we remove clutter while helping you make sense of your documents.”

“We’re delighted that our vision has been endorsed by such high-profile investors and with such significant financial backing.” adds doo.net’s co-founder and COO/CFO Marc Sieberger.

doo.net employs proprietary algorithms - including Optical Character Recognition, keyword and date extraction - to automatically organize and tag documents. This enables powerful search capabilities where users can enter single or combine multiple keywords to effortlessly find and instantly view and edit documents. doo.net understands the content of the document, such as the name of a person or a company, and automatically classifies and organizes the information, whether it’s part of an invoice, receipt, contract or insurance policy. These features are providing the groundwork for Thelen’s vision to create a central, smartly organized, self-managing system, for all his document needs, ultimately leading to seamless paperless collaboration.

“The proliferation of Apps, devices and communications tools has exponentially increased the number of digital documents a consumer has to handle; and that doesn’t even take into account all the paper-based documents they are still managing,” said Olaf Jacobi, Partner at Target Partners and newly-appointed board member at doo.net. “With doo.net, there is now a single solution for organizing this important information. It is this market positioning, backed up by proven technology and an experienced team, that inspired us to invest in the company.”

Pricing and Availability

The service launches its beta version today with the Apps for OS X and Windows 8 Metro. Other Apps for iOS, Android and Windows will be available in the coming months. doo is free and available to everyone at www.doo.net.  For cloud-based storage with backup and syncing, a “freemium”-pricing model applies. For more details: www.doo.net/pricing.

 

About Doo.net
doo.net is the first cloud-based solution for consumers and small businesses that collects, intelligently organizes and secures all of a users’ documents, which can be found and accessed in a matter of seconds. Sharing and collaborating with colleagues, friends and family is made easier than ever with doo.net’s native apps. doo.net was founded in June 2011 by serial entrepreneurs Frank Thelen,
Marc Sieberger, and Alex Koch. The company is headquartered in Bonn, Germany, with 40 employees. 

 

About DuMont Venture
DuMont Venture Holding GmbH & Co. KG was founded in 2007 as a subsidiary of M. DuMont Schauberg – a leading media corporation and publishing house based in Germany. DuMont Venture is actively seeking high-growth potential companies in the Digital Media and IT segments, and financially supports the development, market launch, and internationalization of its partners. For its entrepreneurs, DuMont Venture is a valued partner that works closely with its partners and their teams to ensure mutual success.

About Lars Hinrichs
Lars Hinrichs is a German entrepreneur and founder of XING, a worldwide social networking website dedicated mostly to cultivating business contacts. On January 15, 2009, he resigned from his function as CEO and joined the board of directors. In November 2009, Lars Hinrichs sold his stake in XING to Hubert Burda Media. Accordingly, he gave up his board membership at XING in January 2010. In 2010, he founded HackFwd, a pre-seed venture capital company investing in technical talent across Europe. Lars is also advising the Global Leaders of World Economic Forum, the Young Global Leaders, and helping Germany with their digital strategy as part of the UNICEF council.

 

About Prof. Dr. Dres. H.C. Simon
Prof. Hermann Simon (born February 10, 1947) is a German author and business leader. He is chairman of Simon-Kucher & Partners Strategy & Marketing Consultants. Prof. Simon is an expert in strategy, marketing and pricing. An ongoing online survey (in German language countries) voted him the most influential management thinker after the late Peter Drucker. Prof. Simon has authored numerous books and writes articles for international newspapers and business magazines.

 

About Target Partners
Target Partners is one of the leading Venture Capital Investors in Germany and is led by a team of Founders and Managers with a strong affinity for tech-driven products and companies. Their focus is on IT, Internet, media, semiconductors, telecommunication, medical technologies, alternative energies, and environment-, micro- and nanotechnologies. Target Partners is very well connected throughout Europe and the U.S. and maintains strong ties to various industries and venture capital.

About e42 Ventures
e42 is the seed investment company of Frank Thelen, Marc Sieberger and Alex Koch. e42 provides funding and mentoring to companies like 6Wunderkinder, myTaxi and Robot Media.

 

Media Contact:
Paul Brady
Consort Partners
doo@consortpartners.com
Tel: +1 646 492 2777