If you’re a frequent TechCrunch reader, you in all probability already find out about mmhmm, the startup with the identify you possible both love or hate. It’s Phil Libin’s second act after Evernote, and it’s a startup born of the pandemic perhaps extra so than another, offering improved video chat instruments together with automated background removing and superior presentation options. The firm, which is simply over a yr outdated, has now raised a complete of round $140 million due to a contemporary injection of $100 million first reported by Bloomberg on Tuesday, which is considerably astounding for those who bear in mind utilizing the primary early beta variations like me.
Startups with foolish names elevating a number of cash is hardly an distinctive prevalence in tech, however Libin’s startup earns additional credit score for barely having a reputation in any respect (it’s actually only a sound). The firm was constructed on the concept that present video instruments actually fail to supply customers with entry to all of the potential that trendy expertise presents, significantly in the case of displays. Mmhmm’s core presenter instruments assist your conferences look extra like skilled newscasts than warmed over digital variations of transparency slideshows and whiteboard scrawls, and the corporate has steadily been including options and bettering its efficiency by means of frequent iterations since its founding.
As it stands, mmhmm works in tandem with the prevailing video companies that individuals use for digital conferences, together with Zoom. But Bloomberg says it’s going to go standalone as effectively, and introduce a cellular app model. That feels like a superb use of the brand new funds, which come from SoftBank’s Vision Fund, Sequoia Capital and extra.
Even projecting ahead to a post-pandemic world the place digital conferences are much less essential, they’re in all probability nonetheless a everlasting a part of the working world. But mmhmm’s function set additionally appears to nearly outline the idea of ‘feature, not product’ that’s offered as a cautionary story to startups crafting wings of wax and hovering as excessive as they’ll by way of raises and valuation.
