Vimcal has made significant strides in refining its Outlook integration, resulting in fewer bugs
Vimcal, a calendar app backed by Y Combinator (YC), has successfully raised $4.5 million in a seed funding round led by Altos Ventures. This injection of capital is earmarked for the expansion of Vimcal team and the enhancement of its enterprise offerings.
Founded by CEO John Li, Vimcal unveiled its iOS app and Outlook integration last year. Notably, Li shared that Vimcal has made significant strides in refining its Outlook integration, resulting in fewer bugs.
Since its inception, Vimcal has introduced an AI-powered free-time finder feature. This functionality allows users to input meeting slots shared in text form by others or paste a Calendly link to visualize available time slots. Additionally, the feature automatically converts these time slots to the user’s timezone.
Vimcal stands out by enabling users to effortlessly create meetings using natural language sentences such as “Lunch meeting with Lisa at 1 pm tomorrow.” Originally available on desktop, this capability was recently extended to Vimcal’s iOS app in October.
In April, Vimcal launched a specialized product for executive assistants named “Maestro.” This product is tailored for professionals handling schedules for multiple executives across different time zones. Vimcal’s preliminary observations indicate that executive assistants managing schedules for more than one person can save up to two hours per day using Maestro.
Recent months have seen Vimcal introduce additional features, including automatic color coding for distinguishing between internal and external meetings and the ability to identify free slots for all members of a team.
Looking ahead, aims to position its calendar as a central hub for various meeting-related tools. CEO John Li envisions a comprehensive system of record for companies, providing easy access to information about past meetings and relevant notes in one consolidated platform.
In a competitive productivity space, especially within the realm of calendar tools, Vimcal acknowledges the importance of distribution. With the newly acquired funds, the company is strategically expanding its team, focusing on hiring professionals in marketing and sales.
Li emphasizes the significance of a great user experience (UX) in contributing to success in this competitive landscape. Despite the multitude of tools available in the productivity space, Li believes that different entry points, such as video calling, transcription, scheduling, or note-taking, can coexist harmoniously.
To date, Vimcal has secured a total of $6.9 million in funding from prominent investors, including Y Combinator, Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia, former Twitter CEO Dick Costolo, Teachable founder Ankur Nagpal, and Hustle Fund.
