SaaS Start-up Retable Valued at $1m After First Round of Investment

In addition, FigoPara CRO Bulut Arukel and Pia Group CEO Okan Karaduman have joined the team as advisory board members.

Retable.io, a local SaaS startup that specializes in the provision of safe, simple and user-friendly data management. Retable was born out of a belief that spreadsheet solutions could be better. It is more advanced than both Excel and Google Sheets. As a cloud-based system, Retable is updated in real-time and eliminates many of the inefficiencies associated with Excel and Google Sheets. Retable operates in the same way as a database and allows users to input, update, protect and share data and big data efficiently.

The history of Retable

Co-founder Melih Birim has been developing software for 20 years and has seen traditional spreadsheet solutions surpassed by advances in technology. He says that, even in the software development industry, there has been a tendency for engineers to simply rely on the tools they know and understand such as Excel.

As new technologies emerged in recent years, though, Excel began to show its age. It has become outdated and its inconsistencies have been highlighted across all different sectors. As remote working, flexible teams and international collaboration became increasingly necessary, traditional spreadsheets no longer fit the workplace.

Birim turned to online spreadsheets and tried Airtable and Clickup. Both were focused predominantly on project management and failed to offer the flexibility he was after. There were also issues around data inconsistency, cell-based data formats and multiple authorities.. In short, Birim realised the solution he was looking for didn’t exist. So, he built it.

“Based on these problems, I decided to combine the flexibility of Excel with cloud technology.” Birim said. “This is how retable.io was born. My primary desire was to make a tool as flexible, fast and useful as Excel, but also more capable than it in data modelling and data validation.”

When talking through his idea with friends, it became clear that many of them were facing similar problems. And Retable was the solution to their problems too. One friend began to use Retable to track offshore development. Another found the timesheet files made for a simple HR system.

One friend, a dietician, found Retable was perfect for collaborating and communicating with clients. He was able to track each clients’ monthly progress, assign projects and create weekly charts without the need for any other software.

Retable had proved to be even more useful than its designers originally thought.

Use of the investment

Prior to the funding round, Birim financed the venture using his own money. And despite the success of Retable, Birim was not content to stand still. The investment will be used to bolster the research and development of the company. Birim is a firm believer in listening to client feedback and trying to find ways to improve his offering to meet the needs of his clients and the changing landscape of business. That is, after all, how Retable was created in the first place.

“Retable.io is turning into a platform that can be used in more than one area.” Birim said. “We can see this easily among hundreds of people who use retable.io. Our goal will be to save our users from data mess by establishing a secure data system. Also, as a software developer, I want to turn retable.io into a nocode db platform.”

Birim has high hopes for the future of Retable. His original goal of finding simple, effective spreadsheet solutions has grown but the basic principle of trying to make admin and project management easier for individuals, businesses and other organisations remains.

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