Svend Erik Kundby-Nielsen doesn’t know if he could get banks to finance his start-up company swipx. He actually never made an attempt.

“No, not at all,” he replied, when asked whether he has been out on the traditional lending market. He in turn has done something else.

With a birth certificate that says 1964 and a long career working for international banks, and most recently for IBM in several different countries, he has obviously built up a network.

And when  he could see that his own money was not enough to realize a rapid internationalization of his concept, he managed to turn some of his friends.

And it’s not just anyone who has entered into ownership, it must be noted.

Jørgen Bardenfleth was among many other things CEO of Microsoft Denmark between 2004 and 2012. Moreover, he sits on a wide range of boards as executive director. Also Kim Østrup is a known name in the IT industry with more than four decades as an executive for IBM Denmark on his resume. Additionally he has been very influential  in shaping the development of the Danish IT world.

READ ALSO: Founder: Rather dilute ownership than to slow down

Also, from the financial world there is an investor who doesn’t want to be named. And finally, swipx has hired Peter Berg as marketing director, who was a strong past in marketing at Telenor.

So it is quite understandable that Svend Erik Kundby-Nielsen believes he is in professional company.

“It’s really clever money,” he says, referring to the new investors.

“When we hold board meetings, it is enormously constructive, because its members really understands the
industry.”

The industry, as Svend Erik Kundby-Nielsen talks about is in a way something he himself has invented, as it became clear to him that many companies scrambled in the dark when they needed to buy software to solve one problem or the other.

He has developed a tool/platform, as opposed to confusing and sponsored Google searches that can easily find and narrow down the offer if, for instance you are looking for available CRM systems. Hence swipx is your search engine for software.

The portal is in English. From the beginning, the concept was to think internationally as there alone in the EU are more than 21 million companies – when you also include the little ones.

And since the annual market for software licenses is more than 550 billion. DKK in the EU, you can easily spot the market potential.

Upload your solutions for free

All suppliers of software can upload their solutions for free on the portal and there are various subscription models for their participation.

So far, they have entered the Finnish market with help from industry organizations. And right now they are preparing for Germany together with the Danish-German Chamber of Commerce.

And lastly a tip for other entrepreneurs who mulls over what to call their new company: Investigate if possible if a chosen name can give inappropriate associations in other languages.

Originally Svend Erik Kundby-Nielsen’s called his new business for swiib. But when Jørgen Bardenfleth entered as an investor he was greeted from his American wife who mentioned that the name is reminiscent of the words you use in the United States to peel/steal – eg. a bicycle.

The name was therefore changed to swipx which – hardly can be pronounced by anyone – unless you are told that the x is be pronounced by itself – just like in the name Uno-X.