Dutch startup Instruqt closes €15M in Series A funding after 5 years of bootstrapping

For many years, Hilversum, Netherlands-based Instruqt has been helping companies bring their products to life through a series of engaging and interactive hands-on demos and training. Then after five years of bootstrapping its way to successful growth, the startup has just raised €15 million in a Series A funding round led by Blossom Capital.

Founded in 2018 by CEO Coert Baart and CTO Adé Mochtar, Instruqt is a technology adoption platform used by companies to teach people about their technologies and bring their products to life. Instruqt offers a seamless way for companies to create interactive demos, workshops, and training that mirror real product experiences. It enables software companies to educate and sell to modern buyers and users with an authentic, immersive experience.

Instruqt’s platform is used by some of the biggest names in tech including Hashicorp, MongoDB, Red Hat, Okta, Datadog, and others use Instruqt to generate millions of dollars in the pipeline and account expansion. Since its inception in 2018, Instruqt has hosted more than 1.6 million training and sales demos, built by more than 2,000 active content creators to more than a million engaged prospects and learners.

“We know first-hand how busy buyers and users are and how many directions they’re being pulled in. For sellers to get their attention they need to give them a product experience they won’t forget. They can give buyers the reins to let them test, interact and push the software in ways that not only make it engaging but empowers them to make better, more informed decisions,” Mochtar said in a statement.

Since its inception in 2018, Instruqt has hosted over 1.6 million training and sales demos for more than a million engaged prospects and learners. Its active community of 2,000 content creators has played a crucial role in creating and delivering this content. Businesses that have used Instruqt have, on average, seen a reduction of one-third in their presale times, while increasing their sales pipeline and generating a 45% increase in higher-quality leads. Additionally, sales cycles have been shortened by 40%, leading to a 320% return on investment.

Instruqt team

The company has experienced significant growth in recent years, doubling its customer base in 2022 and tripling its revenue. In the past two years alone, the team has expanded threefold. Instruqt’s founder, a serial entrepreneur named Baart, was previously a co-founder of XebiaLabs, a DevOps company that he successfully sold in 2020.

CEO Baart said: “We’re incredibly proud of the success we’ve had to date, created by offering real value that shifts the dial for our customers. Having been bootstrapped since day one, it was always going to take a VC who truly understood our vision for us to take outside capital. With Ophelia and Blossom, we now have the support and networks to take Instruqt to the next level and beyond.”

Ophelia Brown, founder and Managing Partner at Blossom Capital, added: “Instruqt hits the sweet spot for buyers and sellers alike when it comes to tackling the key challenges faced in all sizes and sectors of business. Its own growth is a testament to just how important putting products and software features at the heart of your business strategy can be and we’re delighted to not only be investing in this round, but to be Instruqt’s first venture partner.”