Cheqroom raises $15 million to accelerate international growth

New York, 15 March 2022 – Cheqroom, the Belgian player that develops software for managing expensive equipment, raised 15 million dollars in growth capital to accelerate its international growth. The investment, which comes from American investor Level Equity, will be used to further develop the product and open offices in the United States and Spain. In the US, the focus will be on sales and marketing.

VIDEO: Interview with the CEO- $15 million, what now?

Cheqroom was founded by CEO & Founder Vincent Theeten in 2014. Today, companies such as Google, Airbnb, Fox Sports, and EA Sports already use Cheqroom. The company has so far grown mainly with its own resources. “Over the past few years, we’ve grown more than 50% annually. Our place in the Deloitte Technology Fast 50, which ranks us among the 50 fastest growing Belgian tech companies, also confirmed that we have found the right product-market fit”, says Theeten proudly. And, it is clear that the ambitions do not stop there: the company wants to become the market leader for AV material management. To realize this ambition, it was time to look for external capital. We found the perfect fit with a growth equity firm, Level Equity.

“For most companies around the world with large volumes of high-value equipment, the process of managing their inventory is largely still done via Excel or pen & paper. Managing this inventory has become increasingly complex, especially given the rise of hybrid work environments which require stronger collaboration and flexibility both in and outside the office. Cheqroom has solved this problem and emerged as a leader in the equipment management market by delivering hard ROI to their customers: decreasing equipment loss and downtime, improving equipment useful life visibility, and enhancing the productivity of media and live event production teams. We are thrilled to partner with the industry thought leader in this space and look forward to supporting the company’s future growth initiatives and US expansion,” said Charles Chen, Partner at Level Equity, who will join Cheqroom’s board of directors.

Continue investing in product and market

Cheqroom has clear plans with the funds. First and foremost, the company will continue to invest in its product. “We notice that more and more large companies come to us to gain insight into their Return on Equipment. In addition to managing the material itself, Cheqroom increases the efficiency and productivity of companies and provides smart insights into investments or the use of material. To meet the more complex needs of those larger customers, we want to further expand the product in that regard.” says Samia Suys, Head of Product at Cheqroom. But that certainly doesn’t mean the company is losing sight of its existing customer database. It will also use the money to strengthen basic workflows and add even more features to the app.

In addition, the company wants to broaden its target audience. “Today, we mainly focus on video production, but we see much potential in related industries. Just think of visual inspection with drones, software & game developers, or e-sports production. To appeal to those markets, we need to invest to better reach these industries and help them understand how Cheqroom can uniquely cater to their equipment management needs,” explains Diederik Syoen, Head of Marketing at Cheqroom.

New offices in the US and Spain

Finally, the Belgian scale-up will also use the money to establish itself more geographically, with two new offices.

First and foremost, the company will open an office in New York City to be closer to a significant portion of its customers. Across its 1000+ international customers, about 70% are located in the United States. These are large broadcasters such as FOX Sports and CNN, software companies such as Google or EA Games, but also several specific niches that do not exist in Europe. “Church production houses are big business in America. Certain churches have 85,000 followers on their live streams every week. We also don’t know about the major sports competitions of University teams here in Europe. These teams often have more than 100 employees, not including athletes. They use Cheqroom for the material management of their video channels.” explains Theeten.

The US office will mainly employ people who are in direct contact with the customer, such as sales, marketing, and customer success. “Even though a large part of the interactions today takes place digitally, we notice that the contact becomes much more personal when you can meet in person. Collecting feedback about how customers use the product also becomes so much easier. Our service will also run a lot smoother when we eliminate the time difference.” adds Theeten.

Cheqroom will continue to serve Europe and the rest of the world from its headquarters in Belgium. It will also open a facility in Spain, which will become a product development hub. With this, Cheqroom wants to respond to the enormous pool of well-trained Spanish software developers

Cheqroom plans to double its employees by the end of 2022, spread over the head office in Belgium and the new offices in Spain and America.

About Cheqroom

Cheqroom is a Belgian scale-up that helps video producers and material managers track analyze and improve their film and recording equipment. With clients such as Amazon, Google, Airbnb, and Electronic Arts, Cheqroom helps companies worldwide manage thousands of items and thus bring order to their material management. Cheqroom was founded by CEO & Founder Vincent Theeten in 2014 and today has 35 employees.

About Level Equity

Based in New York, NY, and San Francisco, CA, Level Equity is a private investment firm focused on providing capital to rapidly growing software and technology-driven businesses. Level provides long-term capital across all transaction types in support of continued growth. The firm has raised $3.0 billion in committed capital and has made over 90 investments since its inception. For more information, visit the Level Equity website!

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