There seems to have been an increasing amount of navel-gazing lately about the direction the Berlin startup scene is heading in – this writer is no exception – and questioning of why we haven’t seen more companies from the city breakout on a global scale. But in truth, things are still looking pretty good, and the latest proof of that is 6Wunderkinder‘s $19 million (€14.1m) Series B round led by Sequoia.
The round, in which the company’s previous investors Atomico and Earlybird are also participating, bring the total investment in 6WK to a whopping $30 million, the sort of figure all too rare in Berlin.
But it comes as the productivity app continues to register decent growth: According to chief design officer Benedikt Lehnart, who was speaking at the Italian embassy on Monday, Wunderlist now has six million users including 50,000 businesses and has seen the number of daily active users (DAUs) grow by a factor of five this year alone.
The deal marks Sequoia’s first German startup investment, and the investment firm’s partner Sir Michael Moritz will join the 6WK board. The money will be spent on building user engagement and accelerating the adoption of Wunderlist Pro, which was launched in April. It will also be used for further international growth, specifically in the US market which is already an important one for 6WK alongside the likes of China, Japan and Europe.
Christian Reber, founder and CEO of 6Wunderkinder, said: “Sir Michael’s vast experience and expertise will help us take 6Wunderkinder to the next level and to new markets. We’re also thrilled to be Sequoia Capital’s first investment in Germany. Not only is it a great endorsement of the team here at 6Wunderkinder, it is also a thumbs up to the thriving technology industry here in Berlin.”
Moritz, meanwhile, said: “Wunderlist is one of those addictive apps that make you wonder what you did before it came along. It brings order to the chaotic challenge of tracking ‘to-do’ items. The apparent simplicity of Wunderlist is a tribute to the underlying power of its design. For Sequoia our new relationship with 6Wunderkinder is a continuation of our deep interest in cloud based productivity applications which led to our earlier business partnerships with Dropbox and Evernote.”