Investment Notes: Instant's Series A
Our lead investment into Instant’s $11.2M Series A was announced today. It also represents Hummingbird's first investment into Australia, an ecosystem we’re excited about.
It took >1 year of pestering Liam before he replied to my email. The persistence was warranted, as he has what we look for in spades: an unconventional upbringing, a high bar for talent, and an intense chip on his shoulder. His parents—police officers who had been injured and were off-duty—traveled to over 100 countries and across Australia in a caravan for three years. During this period, Liam was home-schooled and started his first business—a travel blog—that allowed him to earn pocket money. He launched Native Magazine (travel-focused) at 16, reaching 50K readers in one year. Liam then fast-tracked through high school, attended college for one year, and dropped out to launch Instant.
We were fortunate to meet the team while they were rapidly scaling their shopper identification tool, 'Audiences'—and their numbers were off the charts. We just had to get involved with the company.
The most fun part of our DD was the customer calls. I don't know if Instant pays its customers to say this, but somehow, 3 of the 5 we spoke to said these exact words: "it feels like we are making free money and we don't want to ever turn the product off". If that's not customer love, then I don't know what is.
Just this morning, Will texted me saying they are "not even 0.001% done!". I believe it. We're excited about partnering with the team and can't wait to see how their journey unfolds.
—
More info on the round here.
—
 | A guest post by
|