A company that makes meetings worth going to just raised $1m

A company that allows people to easily share ideas and content during meetings and presentations has secured $1 million of funding to expand into the US.

Glisser, which enables presenters to interact and share slides with audiences via their smartphones, has been handed investment from backers including Downing Ventures, the London Co-Investment Fund and Angel Investors to open an office in New York.

“In the past year we’ve grown our corporate client base and made significant improvements in our technology with excellent support from Microsoft,” said Mike Piddock, Chief Executive of the events technology start-up. “This round of funding means we are well positioned to build an exciting company over the next 12 to 18 months and establish our New York base to meet an increasingly global portfolio of clients.”

The investment comes just four months after Glisser graduated from Microsoft Accelerator London, a global initiative that helps entrepreneurs build great companies. Microsoft runs seven schemes across the world, offering the tools, resources, knowledge and expertise start-ups need to scale their business, bring innovative services to market and reach new customers.

Glisser now supports a variety of high-profile clients, ranging from Amex and Bloomberg to government departments, universities and other start-up events.

Glisser, which was founded in 2014 after Piddock noticed that the meetings he attended were failing to deliver insightful data, allows users to run real-time polls and question and answer session with an audience. Those taking part don’t even have to download an app, as Glisser presentations can be accessed by searching for a URL on any smartphone browser.

Now 1.2 billion PowerPoint users can also benefit from Glisser. The company has released an add-on that integrates Glisser’s technology into Office, and presenters will be able to set up instantly by synchronising with the cloud.

Commenting on the partnership with Microsoft, Piddock said he believed that Glisser’s add-on will “significantly improve Microsoft PowerPoint’s feature set by connecting a global market of presenters with audiences in real time”.

“We’ve proven that Glisser has a direct impact on audience engagement in business presentations and that companies across the world want to use it at their events. By connecting audiences through their devices, we’re improving live events, driving better feedback and collecting leads for sales presentations.”