Admazely
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
Admazely supplied retargeting tools that helped online stores advertise to former website visitors.
02 / Admazely FAILURE REASONS
Failure reasons
Admazely ran out of money and filed for bankruptcy in 2013. The bridge financing the company had counted on - a co-investment from SEED Capital and the Accelerace program - fell through when Accelerace's Investment Committee withheld final approval, leaving the founders with very little time to react. Compounding the crisis, two key UK salespeople were denied permanent work visas and had to leave Denmark within 30 days, and the CTO and co-founder David left to move back to Stockholm. With 90% labor costs and three-month employee notice periods, the company had no operational ability to cut costs before the money ran out. The founder also acknowledged raising too early and having no plan B.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Founded
Admazely (admazely.com / admaze.ly) is started informally in Denmark by Peter V. Therkildsen Schlegel, David Bjorklund, and Sylwia Erhardt-Bednarska, building tools for retargeting advertisement.
- Seed funding
Soren Holbech joins in 2012; the company raises about EUR 600,000 in seed financing from SEED Capital and business angels Martin Bochineck and Christina Rind Helsbro, and joins the Accelerace accelerator program.
- Bankruptcy
In early 2013, the planned bridge financing collapses when Accelerace's Investment Committee withholds approval and SEED's co-investment, conditional on Accelerace, falls through; two key salespeople are denied Danish work visas, the CTO and co-founder David departs for Stockholm, and with a cash-out date at the end of March the company files for bankruptcy.
04 / CONTEMPORARY REBUILD ASSESSMENT
Difficulty of rebuilding this project today
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
Overall assessment: Not completed
05 / CAUSAL CHAIN
How the factors connect
- 01
In 2013, Admazely declared itself bankrupt after its bridge financing plan collapsed: Accelerace's Investment Committee withheld final approval and SEED Capital's conditional co-investment fell through, leaving the company with a cash-out date at the end of March and no time to raise alternatives.
- 02
With 90% of costs in labor and three-month employee notice periods, the company had no operational ability to respond before the money ran out.
- 03
The founders open-sourced Admazely's source code so other developers and startups could benefit from the problems they had solved.