BirdyChat Raises €1.7M and Launches Across Europe with 50K Waitlist
The Riga-based startup opens access to a 50,000-strong waitlist across Europe — and brings a GoCardless-exit founder to the messiest corner of professional communication.
BirdyChat, a professional messaging platform founded in Riga, Latvia, has raised €1.7 million and is now opening access to more than 50,000 users on its European waitlist. The app — available on iOS, Android, and macOS — targets a gap that internal tools like Slack and Microsoft Teams have never filled: external business communication.
The round was backed by DIG Ventures, Change Ventures, Tiny VC, FIRSTPICK, Lumo Capital, Tesonet, Bolt co-founder Markus Villig, and Charlie Songhurst. It’s a notable angel lineup for a Baltic seed-stage company — a signal that the thesis is resonating beyond the region.
*Source: LinkedIn poll by Rolands Mesters, 2025
The problem hiding in plain sight
Most companies have invested in tools for internal communication — Slack for teams, Teams for enterprises. But the moment an employee needs to message a client, a supplier, or a freelancer, the default is still WhatsApp, iMessage, or SMS. It’s personal, blurred, and increasingly a compliance risk. A 2025 LinkedIn poll found that 72% of professionals feel some discomfort using personal apps for work conversations — yet nothing purpose-built has replaced them at scale.
BirdyChat’s answer is a dedicated layer for external professional messaging: work email as your username (no personal number required), threads to keep conversations focused, and lists to group contacts by project or client. The app is designed to be snoozeable — a deliberate nod to the always-on anxiety that personal chat apps create.
The DMA tailwind
BirdyChat isn’t just riding a product insight — it has a regulatory tailwind. Last year, the startup made headlines as the first app to offer WhatsApp interoperability under the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), which forces large messaging platforms to open their ecosystems to third-party apps. The news landed in TechCrunch and sparked 500+ comments on Hacker News — rare organic traction for an early-stage B2B tool.
The DMA is still in early enforcement, but its direction is clear: the walled gardens of consumer messaging are beginning to crack open, and purpose-built professional tools are best positioned to walk through the gap.
People are increasingly using personal chat apps for work-related discussions despite the compliance risks it creates for the companies they work for. BirdyChat is designed to solve that without changing how people communicate.
— Rolands Mesters, Co-founder & CEO, BirdyChat
The founders
Rolands Mesters previously co-founded a fintech startup that was acquired by GoCardless, the UK payments unicorn — an exit that brings both credibility and a personal network of enterprise buyers to BirdyChat. His co-founder Martins Spilners is a seasoned engineer with stints at FullContact and saas.group.
Since opening its waitlist, the company has seen the strongest demand from project managers, community builders, and business development professionals — the roles that live and die on external communication.
The world does need another chat app — one that is purpose-built for external professional communication and with enterprise requirements at heart. The Digital Markets Act created an additional tailwind for this need, and we are thrilled to be backing Rolands and Martins.
— Rytis Vitkauskas, General Partner, DIG Ventures
Investors in this round
- DIG Ventures
- Change Ventures
- Tiny VC (Ophelia Cai)
- FIRSTPICK
- Lumo Capital
- Tesonet
- Markus Villig (Bolt co-founder)
- Charlie Songhurst
Why it matters for European tech
BirdyChat is a bet on a structural shift — not just a product feature. The DMA is quietly rewriting the rules of interoperability across Europe, and the founders are building directly into that opening. The Baltic startup ecosystem has produced serious exits (Pipedrive, Bolt, Wise) and BirdyChat’s investor roster suggests the next generation is coming with similar ambition. Watch for the enterprise rollout as the waitlist converts.
About BirdyChat: Professional messaging platform for external business communication. Founded 2025, headquartered in Riga, Latvia. Available on iOS, Android, and macOS. More at birdy.chat.
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