Spot lands $5.5M seed funding led by Freestyle for the next-gen communication app for teams

The pandemic has accelerated the adoption of remote work as many companies now embrace the new reality of employees working from home. This shift is also driving the adoption of virtual work tools. It was this shift that led Outreach co-founders Gordon Hempton and Wes Hathe to build software that creates a virtual representation of an office that they called “Sims for the enterprise.”

In 2021, the duo founded Spot, the next-generation communications platform that combines the metaverse experience with enterprise-grade tools to help high-performing remote organizations enhance team engagement, build corporate culture, improve retention, and amplify productivity.

It didn’t take long before Spot got the attention of investors and venture capital firms. In April 2021, the 7-person startup at the time raised $1.7 million in funding. Spot currently competes with virtual office space platforms such as Gather and Teamflow.

Today, the Seattle-based Spot announced $5.5 million in a combined Seed Round of funding led by Freestyle and additional investors, including Liquid 2 Ventures, Community Access Fund, and Founder’s Co-Op. The startup plans to use the funding proceeds to double down on Spot’s technical capabilities, expand the team and attract more users.

Spot helps high-performing organizations communicate more effectively while enhancing team experience, building company culture, improving retention, and amplifying productivity. Teams can communicate within the platform using virtual avatars in a branded office setting while accessing a comprehensive team chat and video conferencing, a more integrated solution compared to Slack, Discord, and Teams. The platform combines a uniquely personal metaverse experience with enterprise-grade communication tools and provides a comprehensive solution to remote workforce challenges.

“Spot is bridging the gap between the in-person work experience and the static text-and-tile communication methods we see with remote workforces,” stated Spot CEO and co-founder, Gordon Hempton. “We know the future of remote communication will be more immersive, but it also needs to be accessible. With Spot, anyone with a web browser can instantly access the service and take advantage of a more engaging experience for their distributed team. We believe that companies can leverage this type of technology to drastically improve the work experience today.”

With Spot, organizations can build their own virtual customizable workspace that easily reflects the company’s brand and culture. Team members can host meetings, share screens, collaborate instantly, or start a conversation just by interacting with the avatars in the space. Communication is organized with channels, threads, direct messages, and reactions seamlessly integrated into one easy-to-utilize solution.

“There was an influx of “metaverse adjacent” technology companies in the past year, but we saw something different with Spot,” noted David Samuel, Partner at Freestyle. “Spot is the only business-critical metaverse platform in which real organizations operate today. We’re seeing real tech adoption, with many teams switching to Spot as their primary communications tool. We think Spot’s hybrid approach, which combines the benefits of the metaverse with the ease of legacy communication tools, will fill a crucial corporate gap in the future of work.”

Spot is used by teams from global brands including Apple, American Express, Google, GoGlobal, Change Stage, Meta, and Uber.