Beekeeper is an industry leader in communications software for non-desk workers. These are the millions of employees in industries like retail, hospitality, manufacturing, and construction who often lack access to traditional corporate communication tools such as email or desktop computers.

Beekeepers’ mobile-first communications platform allows employers to connect with their deskless workers in real time, replacing blackboards, paper-based systems, and consumer messaging apps with a secure, scalable solution.

Co-founders Cristian Grossmann, Flavio Pfaffhauser, Andreas Slotosch, and Daniel Sztutwojner established the company in 2012 as an ETH Zurich spin-off. The name Beekeeper reflects the need for efficient and straightforward coordination in companies, like in beehives. In 2013, the company launched its first global implementation by connecting 50,000 employees of a luxury hotel brand.

Mike Hobmeier from Verve Ventures met CEO Cris Grossmann in their first small office in Technopark Zurich in 2014. He was introduced to him by a common acquaintance who also had studied at ETH. At that time, Beekeeper raised its Seed round. Later, as the startup progressed, Mike introduced Beekeeper’s team to Verve Ventures’ team.

Steffen Wagner, co-founder of Verve Ventures, says, “From the first meeting with Cris and the other founders, we were impressed by their execution vigour and metrics-driven business planning.”

Verve Ventures first invested in Beekeeper’s Series A in 2017. Verve’s private investors joined a financing round that also saw Niklas Zennström, a co-founder of Skype, invest. The startup had won an impressive list of clients in hospitality, retail, and manufacturing, and had grown by 50 employees.

In the years following the first investment, the Verve Ventures team helped with key account management at Beekeeper, was instrumental in winning several high-value clients and recruiting key people.

“As one of our early investors, Verve Ventures has been a great support for Beekeeper for a long time”, says Cris Grossmann.

A critical moment in Beekeeper’s development was the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020. Almost overnight it became “painfully evident how important communication with your frontline workers is”, as Cris Grossmann stated in our interview. The usage of Beekeeper’s tool spiked, and deals with customers that usually had very long sales cycles happened in a matter of days. While critics pointed out that MS Teams would eventually replace tools such as Beekeeper’s, Verve Ventures continued to believe in the disciplined execution Cris and the team had demonstrated in the past and would continue to deliver strong global sales in the future.

As Beekeeper continued to grow, expand across countries, and raise more money, Verve Ventures introduced the founders to institutional investors like Swisscanto and Swiss Post, who also invested in the company. Today, Beekeeper employs 250 people and serves more than 1500 companies worldwide.

The buyer LumApps, was also founded in 2012 by Sébastien Ricard, Lionel Grivel and Olivier Chanoux. The founders leveraged their experience as cloud specialists to start an internal communication company. Over the years, experiencing hypergrowth, LumApps raised USD 100 million and made several acquisitions. In 2024, Bridgepoint Europe VII, a mid-market private equity fund, became a majority shareholder of LumApps in a deal valued at USD 650m.

Its successful merger of Beekeeper with LumApps showcases the importance of ICT startups for the Swiss startup ecosystem. The mutual trust that has grown between Verve Ventures and Beekeeper over the years is also a win for Verve’s network: Several of Beekeeper’s founders have become active investors with Verve Ventures. “We are very proud to count these successful founders among our investor network that finances the next generation of entrepreneurs in Europe”, says Mike Hobmeier.