A German software company focused on bringing digital and AI capabilities to workers outside traditional office settings has closed a €10M funding round. The investment was spearheaded by Newion, an Amsterdam-based early-stage investor in business software, alongside NRW.Venture, the venture arm of NRW.BANK based in Düsseldorf. Earlier backers Scalehouse Capital from Osnabrück and D11Z. Ventures from Heilbronn also joined the round.
Newion focuses on supporting founders from initial traction through product-market validation and into international growth. "The deskless workforce is a gigantic, previously neglected market. clockin has the potential to become the leading platform in Europe," said Mathijs de Wit, Managing Partner at Newion. NRW.Venture, the investment vehicle of North Rhine-Westphalia's development bank, typically enters startups at their second financing round and can deploy up to €15M across multiple rounds alongside private investors.
The capital will fuel clockin's efforts to scale its software and artificial intelligence features designed for mobile work teams operating within European small and medium-sized enterprises.
The problem clockin addresses
Roughly four-fifths of workers employed outside conventional offices—particularly in sectors like skilled trades and healthcare within SMEs—continue to depend on manual workflows and paper-based systems. The startup seeks to streamline operations by cutting through administrative overhead and unnecessary documentation.
"We need to bring all employees into the AI age – especially in small businesses. This opens up enormous potential for millions of companies," explained Frederik Neuhaus, clockin's Chief Executive and Co-Founder, outlining the company's vision.
clockin: Democratising digitalisation and AI for mobile workforces
The company was established in 2018 by six co-founders—Jonas Tünte (CMO), Daniel-Dominic Schlief (CPO), Fabian Ebbert (CSO), Frederik Neuhaus (CEO), Benedikt Dreier (COO), and Florian Nolte (CTO)—after receiving input from mid-sized firms struggling with labour-intensive administrative work. Their founding mission centred on making digital tools accessible to smaller businesses.
The platform automates human resources functions including time tracking, shift scheduling, and leave administration, while also handling project management and record-keeping. By handling these operational details automatically, organisations and their staff can redirect attention to core activities: serving clients, executing projects, and fostering professional development. The company describes its approach as practical, straightforward, and easy to use.
More than 6,000 European companies currently use clockin. The startup has been supported by initiatives including the German Accelerator and Scale-up.NRW, and has earned recognition through awards such as the NRW Innovation Award.
"We want nothing less than to free companies and people from paperwork. This way, mobile employees will be seamlessly integrated into company processes for the first time and can operate much more efficiently thanks to AI," Neuhaus stated.
Source: Silicon Canals
