3 reasons why Flyer One Ventures invested in Deskree

By Olha Dub, PR writer at F1V

In September 2023, Ukrainian startup Deskree, which builds a no-code cloud infrastructure tool, raised $1.5 million in a Seed round.

In addition to Flyer One Ventures, the funding round saw participation from Forum Ventures, Hustle Fund, N49P Ventures, Flair Ventures, ZAKA VC, League of Innovators, AAL VC, and Vesna Capital.

Deskree aims to use the investment money to bring in more users globally, develop new products, and partner with more cloud providers in the upcoming year, including Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure.

Here are three key reasons why F1V has added Deskree to its portfolio.

Deskree was founded by Dmytro Grechko, an experienced Ukrainian entrepreneur and web developer who started to run his own business projects about 10 years ago.

While his startup was officially founded in 2021, the company’s history dates back to 2015 when it started as the eponymous project management platform. Eventually, it evolved into Deskree Studio, a software development company.

As time passed, the studio team realized they had to go through the same tasks for every client when creating backends. The process was long and tedious. These projects also hit the clients’ pocketbooks, as they were charged on an hourly basis.

In 2021, Grechko launched Deskree as a project within Deskree Studio to create a cost-effective and optimized backend infrastructure solution for his company. They designed a tool with pre-made modules, which increased developers' productivity and significantly trimmed costs for clients. It didn't go unnoticed: Soon, clients began inquiring about the “magical” tool.

“After building dozens of projects and speaking with clients, we realized the need for our tool outside of our agency. Clients started asking if they could use it, too. That’s how Deskree was born,” Grechko told Silicon Canals.

Having dedicated years to his businesses, Dmytro Grechko has built a solid technical and sales expertise, which is “a valuable combination since tech founders don’t often excel in sales,” says Elena Mazhuha, F1V investment director. The founder is also proactive and quick to learn and iterate — these traits became evident in our interactions with the startup before the deal.

The F1V investment team met Deskree in 2022 at the WeaveSphere conference in Toronto. Our firm had been acquainted with the startup for three months and had conducted numerous sync-up calls with the team before investing in them.

Since F1V typically doesn't lead funding rounds, our firm engaged in detailed negotiations with Deskree after the startup had already secured investment agreements with several other VCs.

Deskree is a user-friendly platform that aids freelancers, startups, medium-sized businesses, and enterprises in setting up and scaling their backend infrastructure. Building the backend for a new project with this tool takes just a few minutes, compared to the typical 20-week timeframe.

With Deskree, companies will no longer need a legion of developers, complicated DevOps and networking, or even any expertise in building a backend.

“A company using their tool can have just one developer on the team, which will be enough to roll out the backend they need — in minutes,” says Vital Laptenok, F1V general partner.

Deskree can integrate with dozens of popular tools, including Firebase, Webflow, Asana, OpenAI, and Mailchimp, allowing customers to leverage their preferred platforms when working on a project.

This is a “painkiller” product, not a “vitamin” — it helps many people solve their problems, while significantly reducing costs.

Deskree's customers tell impressive stories. One startup’s client, a global manufacturer of industrial cleaning supplies, planned a four-month backend project. With Deskree's assistance, it took just 4 days, costing $400, instead of the allocated $40,000. Next, they expanded the project from handling 100 API requests per hour to processing 1.5 billion requests.

Over the past year, the startup has initiated active promotion and sales campaigns, growing its user base from 300 to 10,000 customers. The majority of users are from the United States, India, and Brazil.

The global market for low-code development platforms is rapidly growing. It's expected to reach $94.8 billion by 2028 from $13.9 billion in 2021, with a projected annual growth rate (CAGR) of 31.6%.

Deskree has competitors in this area, but the startup provides customers with opportunities that set it apart from its similar platforms like Supabase, Amplication, or AppWrite. One of its advantages is a user-friendly web interface. Through it, customers can provide their infrastructure requirements, and Deskree takes care of constructing the specified infrastructure. Without this option, users would have to take time to choose among multiple cloud service providers; it adds costs and security challenges.

The startup also distinguishes itself from other Backend as a Service companies by granting clients control and independence. Deskree establishes a distinct infrastructure for every project, with each one serving as a self-contained microservice infrastructure hosted on Google Cloud.

Another great feature of Deskree is its versatility. The tool is suitable not only for prototyping but also for scaling projects, making it a good choice for both small companies and large/midmarket enterprises.

"Many tools in the no-code and low-code developer market assist in creating product prototypes and testing ideas, but scaling such products can be challenging," says Mazhuha. “Deskree's no-code tool stands out for its ability to build scalable products without the need for large backend teams.”

If you are an early-stage startup founder, building a company that aligns with our investment thesis, and seeking to raise funds, you can send your pitch to go@flyerone.vc. Maybe we can work together.

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