Munich Startup: What does your startup do? What problem are you solving?
Jana Krotsch, Ubimaster: Ubimaster gives all students unlimited access to private learning support and tutoring, regardless of their parents’ income. We’ve set up a digital platform that facilitates an on-demand connection with tutors. Our KaaS (Knowledge-as-a-Service) business model is subscription based and targets both private and corporate customers, just like Software-as-a-Service business models.
Munich Startup: But that’s nothing out of the box!
Jana Krotsch: It is as far as I know – we’re the only ones in the market who consistently rely on on-demand learning support and tutoring as well as on B2B and B2B2C business models. By doing so, we’re radically transforming the market!
“I was just tired of looking for tutors”
Munich Startup: What’s your founding story?
Jana Krotsch: I’m a mother of three school-age children, and things aren’t always ideal at school. I was just tired of looking for tutors, booking them and not being sure if the quality was good or not, and then still having to jump in as a tutor myself when needed and before tests because the tutor was only booked once a week.
Munich Startup: What have been your biggest challenges so far?
Jana Krotsch: Online and offline sales to end customers is incredibly expensive, and it eats up almost all of our revenue. Out of necessity, we’ve been focusing on alternative sales channels, and it’s working very well!
Munich Startup: How is business going?
Jana Krotsch: We’re extremely happy with our growth. 40,000 parents and students already have access to our learning support and tutoring.
Ubimaster is completing a funding round
Munich Startup: How have you experienced Munich as a startup location so far?
Jana Krotsch: UnternehmerTUM and the LMU Accelerator are excellent platforms for early-stage companies, and they also supported us – this is where Munich is positioned very well. There are also numerous business angels who take the first steps with startups. For further steps in funding (seed, Series A), however, Munich isn’t optimally positioned yet. We had to look beyond Bavaria for that.
Munich Startup: Quick exit or staying power?
Jana Krotsch: We’re in the process of completing our seed financing round with a combination of German and American VCs on board. This will allow us to grow even faster and to work towards Series A funding. So that means there’s lots to do with plenty of staying power!