Haiku Deck co-founders Kevin Leneway and Adam Tratt.
Haiku Deck co-founders Kevin Leneway and Adam Tratt at their Seattle offices

Haiku Deck, the Seattle startup that’s creating an alternative to PowerPoint, has raised some fresh capital and appointed to key tech executives to its board.

According to a SEC filing, Haiku Deck raised $550,000 of a $1.5 million round. Citing SEC regulations, Haiku Deck CEO Adam Tratt declined to comment on the financing round or total capital raised at the company.

However, Tratt did confirm that two leading Seattle tech executives have joined the company’s board: Moz founder Rand Fishkin and EveryMove CEO Russell Benaroya.

Photo: Haiku Deck
Photo: Haiku Deck

“Both Rand and Russell are passionate public speakers who give tons of presentations each year. They’re perfect for Haiku Deck,” said Tratt.

Haiku Deck has largely grown through word-of-mouth marketing, though it did ink an alliance with LinkedIn-owned SlideShare last year,

With the addition of Fishkin and Benaroya, the company is adding “horsepower needed to grow a best-of-breed SAAS business, strong company culture, and ultimately accelerate our growth,” said Tratt.

Rand Fishkin
Rand Fishkin

Haiku Deck now counts more than 3.6 million downloads on iTunes, and the company’s recently launched Web version also is gaining steam. Haiku Deck also added a Pro version last summer, which comes with the ability to make presentation decks private, add custom branding and export as a PowerPoint. Tratt said it is too early to report on the metrics around the Pro product.

“We’ve continued to grow our base organically thanks to some great new features like editable PowerPoint export and new user profile pages,” said Tratt, a former marketing executive at Cranium.

Haiku Deck, which emerged from TechStars Seattle under the name Giant Thinkwell, raised $3 million in 2013 from Trilogy, Madrona and Founder’s Co-op.

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