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Pitch Perfect in Berlin

There’s no Anna Kendrick, but in many ways, it’s like a Hollywood movie. The collaborative presentation platform Pitch just raised $85 million more.

Pitch began as just another startup in Berlin; it set out in 2018 to change the way we present and collaborate. Not exactly a new and novel idea. Hundreds of companies have failed following this script. Worse than that, a number survive as zombies … companies that walk the Earth but will never come alive as a contender.

pitch berlin

As much as people gripe about PowerPoint, no one has been able to jiggle that rock, let alone seriously dislodge that mainstay of Microsoft’s bluestone wall of business productivity software.

“Death by PowerPoint” became a familiar phrase in global culture and defenders only sound like America’s NRA when they argue “It’s not the tool; it’s the user!”

Pitch launched its vision in October 2020.

“We’ve been incredibly focused on building the fastest and most delightful experience for teams to create, collaborate on and share beautiful, impactful presentations. Every week, we’ve released new features and updates to enhance our core product experience, and we will only accelerate from here,” said Christian Reber, CEO and founder.

Pitch says since it launched tens of thousands of new teams have adopted it as their presentation software of choice, more than 125,000 workspaces have been created, and “the positive feedback we’ve received from customers has been humbling.”

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If the feedback from the users was “humbling,” the feedback from investors has raised $135 million claps in total.

“The exciting vision that Christian and the team at Pitch have is beyond just being a superior alternative to legacy presentation software,” said Stephen Nundy at investor Lakestar.

In this latest round of funding, he has just “bought” himself a board seat on Pitch.

Nundy observes, “A re-imagining of the entire workflow surrounding presentations is very much overdue, and when coupled with the ability to harness new data and media integrations, Pitch will lead the way in changing how stories are told.”

It’s clear that Pitch wants more, so much more than just PowerPoint’s market share.

CEO Reber said, “… We are turning Pitch into the world’s first complete platform for presentations … We didn’t raise $85 million just to build a presentation tool — we raised it to build the world’s first complete platform for presentations.”

That’s right; the company is aiming for a full publishing and content ecosystem.

“It’s time to give presentations a dedicated home. We’re building a full ecosystem for publishing and exchanging presentations and templates, where you all can get inspired with templates crafted by experts, discover revolutionary ideas from top thinkers, and share playful storytelling personal journeys and work you’re proud of.”

And the company is enabling secure sharing and advanced analytics right within Pitch.

“The old process of sending out a presentation is due for a major upgrade. That’s why we recently introduced presentation views, and soon will roll out detailed insights, engagement levels on specific slides, and much more,” Reber said. “… We’re building new ways to highlight, record, and playback presentations in any context … We’re in a new world of work — meetings aren’t what they used to be and neither are presentations. They should work the way teams do: flexibly, remotely, asynchronously. Our new recording and playback features will ensure we stay ahead of the curve for both presenters and recipients. This is a lot to tackle — it’s my job to keep my eyes on where it’s all headed.”

And where is Pitch headed? Core product enhancements and new apps for iOS, iPadOS and Android; publishing functionality and content ecosystem; advanced presentation analytics and better sharing capabilities; recording and playback features for asynchronous presentation delivery.

If it sounds “perfect,” Pitch is still a long way from “absolute pitch.” But $85 million gives this Berlin firm the size of funding that even Anna Kendrick could appreciate.

Here’s a video detailing more about the company:

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