Hungarian startup Prezi, which makes online tools for creating presentations announced on stage at Slush in Helsinki, that it has raised $57 million in financing from private equity firm Spectrum Equity and existing investor Accel Partners to speed up growth, possibly through acquisitions.
Prezi has not used any money from a 2011 investment round of $15.5 million, saying it wanted the freedom to manoeuvre quickly in case an acquisition opportunity suddenly cropped up. The latest injection takes Prezi's war chest to $72.5 million. The company did not give any details about potential targets.
“We are in a competitive market that is filled with giants, the largest companies in the world. These giants have really deep pockets and we also want to have resources that we can swiftly take any type of action that we want” - said Peter Arvai, CEO of Prezi.
The company also announced that it has passed the 50 million users mark, nearly doubling its user base in the past twelve months, and is attracting roughly 55,000 new users every day. Prezi has also been gradually eating away at Microsoft’s Powerpoint market share for the last few years, is poised to become a far more mainstream product than some might have previously thought. Prezi says 80 percent of Fortune 500 companies use its services.
Underlying Prezi’s success to date has been its growing reputation amongst businesses which are using it to persuade clients, woo customers and train internally. Devised originally by co-founder Adam Somlai-Fischer, Prezi's infinite canvas plays on our fundamental spacial awareness, something which the chronological nature of Powerpoint simply cannot touch. Prezi has thus won fans at companies such as Salesforce, Lufthansa, Marriott and IBM.
The company has also won several awards earlier this year. Prezi was recently awarded the prize for the category “Best Startup Founder or Co-founders” at The Europas and CEO Peter Arvai was named Europioneers' “Top Web Entrepreneur of 2014” earlier this November. The company now employs 70 people in its San Francisco office, and 180 in Budapest.
