–>
BirdyChat, a Riga-based startup developing a professional messaging platform for external business communication, has raised €1.7M in a seed round led by early-stage investors including DIG Ventures, Change Ventures and Tiny VC, alongside other angels and operators. The company is opening access to its product across Europe and the UK, where it has built a waitlist of roughly 50,000 users. BirdyChat focuses on separating work-related external communication from personal messaging apps, an area that has remained largely dependent on consumer chat platforms despite the growth of enterprise collaboration tools. The new funding will be used to support product development and expand its presence in European markets while onboarding users from its waitlist.
BirdyChat is a professional messaging platform focused on external business communication. The company builds tools designed to help users manage work-related conversations that typically take place outside internal collaboration systems, such as interactions with clients, partners, and external stakeholders. Founded in Riga, Latvia in 2025, BirdyChat is developing its product for use across web and mobile platforms and is currently expanding its user base across Europe and the UK.
The Riga-based startup is positioning itself at the intersection of workplace software and consumer messaging, building a dedicated layer for external business communication – an area still dominated by personal chat apps despite the rise of internal tools like Slack and Microsoft Teams.
BirdyChat gained visibility last year for being the first to offer eligible users across Europe the option to message people on WhatsApp directly as part of the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA). This regulatory shift is beginning to open previously closed messaging ecosystems, creating new opportunities for startups to explore and compete.
The app addresses a problem hiding in plain sight – while workplace apps solve internal communication logistics, communicating with external partners or clients tends to happen on personal chat platforms. In a 2025 LinkedIn poll conducted by Mesters, 72% of respondents said they feel some level of reservation about using personal apps for work.
“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,” says Rolands Mesters.
BirdyChat’s features are designed to make messaging more productive – threads to keep discussions organised around specific messages, lists to group chats by project or theme, and the use of work email addresses as usernames so people don’t need to share personal phone numbers.
BirdyChat was co-founded by Rolands Mesters, previously co-founder of a fintech startup acquired by GoCardless, and Martins Spilners, a lifelong engineer, at FullContact and saas.group. The company was founded in 2025 and is backed by venture capital firms focused on scaling globally ambitious startups from Europe.
Since opening its waitlist, BirdyChat has seen particularly strong demand from project managers, community builders, and business development professionals – roles that rely heavily on external communication. The company will use the recently raised funds to support its continued development and expansion.
“The world does need another chat app, one that is purpose-built for external professional communication and with enterprise requirements at heart. Digital Markets Act created an additional tailwind for this need, we are thrilled to be backing Rolands and Martins.” – Rytis Vitkauskas, General Partner at DIG Ventures.
Click to read more funding news.
–>
Read the orginal article: https://arcticstartup.com/birdychat-raises-e1-7m-seed/
