The startup plancraft has received 12 million euros in a Series A financing round. The round was led by Creandum, which also supports Bolt, Klarna and Spotify. plancraft plans to drive digitalisation in the skilled trades and expand beyond the DACH region. The TU Hamburg team was supported in its business development by Startup Port @TUHH respectively Startup Port.
The skilled trades face numerous challenges such as a shortage of skilled labour, bureaucratic hurdles and uncertain material prices. This is where plancraft comes in: The company offers a software solution that digitalises various work processes. This includes invoicing, price calculation, construction site documentation and time recording. This solution enables craft businesses to increase their efficiency and focus more on their core business.
Successful financing round
plancraft recently raised 12 million euros in a Series A financing round. The round was led by the Swedish venture capital firm Creandum, which has also invested in Klarna and Spotify, among others. Existing investors include Bitstone Capital and High-Tech Gründerfonds. Back in September 2022, plancraft announced seed financing of 1.9 million euros.
Expansion and future plans
With the new capital, plancraft plans to expand beyond the DACH region and aims to become the leading software for tradespeople in Europe. The company wants to strengthen its market position and further develop the product in order to offer even more digitalisation options to tradespeople.
Positive feedback from the field
Customers confirm the benefits of the Plancraft software. Jeroen Smeelen, Managing Director of Holzbau Lübber GmbH, emphasises how important the software has been for his company: ‘Without plancraft, I wouldn’t have been able to overcome the challenges of the past year. The software simplifies many processes and allows me to concentrate on my craft.”
Founding story with Startup Port
The startup plancraft received the one-year EXIST start-up grant from the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) in January 2020. The Startup Port @TUHH and the Startup Port provided advice during the application process. In the meantime, the startup was also provided with affordable premises in the Startup Port in Hamburg’s Schloßstraße. plancraft was then founded in February 2020 by Julian Wiedenhaus, Alexander Noll and Richard Keil.
The founders of plancraft
Alex has a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH). At the same time, he trained as an energy expert at the Elbcampus. He also completed a Master’s degree in International Business and Engineering at the TUHH and graduated in 2019. Even during his studies, he was interested in software development, continued his self-taught training and took on working student jobs as a developer. During one of these jobs, he met Richard at Etventure, a subsidiary of the management consultancy Ernst & Young. Alex has a background in craftsmanship, as his father owns the Noll joinery in Tostedt near Hamburg, where Alex grew up.
Richard is Alex’s mentor at Etventure. He is the IT expert in the team, started with an apprenticeship as an IT specialist and gained many years of professional experience in the field of web design/web development in agencies, corporate start-ups and consultancies. As a full stack developer (i.e. he can programme frontend and backend), he has been working full-time at plancraft since the end of 2019, just like the others. Richard was born in Munich.
Julian is a trained mechanical engineer. As part of a dual study programme at Airbus in Bremen, he completed both an apprenticeship as an aircraft mechanic and a Bachelor of Engineering at Bremen University of Applied Sciences. Like his co-founder and fellow student Alex, he completed his Master’s degree in International Business and Engineering at the TUHH and graduated in 2018. Parallel to plancraft, Julian is still working as a project manager at Airbus until 2019. He comes from Bielefeld.
plancraft’s success story
Their joint company serves more than 10,000 customers, currently employs over 40 people and has already handled construction projects worth almost one billion euros with its software. The digitalisation solution from plancraft is an important step towards making trade businesses more efficient and future-proof.
