A Y Combinator-backed startup called Velt is aiming to revolutionize online collaboration. While apps like Google Docs and Figma have made it easy to work together virtually, there are still many applications where users cannot collaborate with colleagues or add notes. Velt hopes to change that with its new toolkit that allows developers to integrate collaborative features into their apps in less than 30 minutes.
Key Takeaway
Velt is a Y Combinator-backed startup that aims to make app collaboration seamless. With its developer toolkit, developers can easily add collaborative features to their apps in under 30 minutes. This allows users to interact with colleagues, add notes, and engage with the app on a whole new level. Velt’s flexible approach and AI-powered features make it a game-changer in the world of online collaboration.
Leveling the Playing Field for Collaboration
Velt is on a mission to level the playing field by giving developers the ability to choose which collaborative features they want to include in their apps. This includes options such as contextual commenting (like in Google Docs), live walkthroughs (similar to Figma), recording features (like Loom), or huddles (like Slack). This flexibility allows developers to enhance their apps with collaborative functionality without reinventing the wheel. To support its vision, Velt has raised $2.77 million in seed funding.
Founded by Former Google Product Manager
Velt was founded by Rakesh Goyal, a former Google Product Manager who had previously worked on Google’s AR team. He initially had a different idea in mind when he left Google in 2020, but the Covid pandemic changed everything. Working with a remote team showed Goyal the limitations of existing collaboration tools. Instead of native collaboration, his team had to resort to taking screenshots and sharing them through Slack, which led to a lack of engagement. Additionally, Goyal realized that building and maintaining collaborative features was expensive and challenging for developers.
Enhancing In-Person and Online Experiences
Based on these experiences, Velt pivoted its focus to building a set of developer tools that bridged the gap between in-person and online collaboration. The company’s JS SDK allows developers to choose the features they want to add to their platform, such as commenting, huddles, or video and voice recording, and customize the user interface to meet their specific needs. Some of these features are powered by AI, such as automatic transcript generation and AI-driven categorization of comments.
Use Cases and Customer Base
Velt’s primary use cases currently lie within three verticals: creative tools, business analytics tools, and CRM tools. Examples of creative tools include website builders, video editing tools, and video creation tools. Business apps similar to Mixpanel or Amplitude, as well as CRM and task management tools, are also ideal for collaboration. Velt also offers a product called Superflow, designed for marketing agencies collaborating on design and marketing assets with their clients. The company has a growing customer base, including HR analytics software eqtble, design platform awesomic, website building platform zoomforth, and knowledge management software parc.
With its successful seed funding round and growing customer base, Velt is poised to transform the way we collaborate online. The company’s focus on enhancing human-to-human collaboration through AI and expanding human and AI collaboration in context shows promising potential for the future. As more developers integrate Velt’s toolkit into their apps, the boundaries between in-person and online experiences will continue to blur, leading to more seamless and productive collaboration.
