This past year has been filled with highs and lows. From navigating the ongoing pandemic to the re-opening of the world, it’s been a year of flexibility, hope, and adaptation. With the support of our growing community, we’ve made the most of 2021 and couldn’t be more excited for what 2022 will bring! We’ll be looking back on the past 12 months one more time before gearing up for an even more exhilarating New Year and previewing some of what you can expect from us.
- Closing Our Series B Round
- Connection, Even in Isolation
- Bringing Renewed Innovation
- Closing the Interactive Gap
- New Collaborations, New Sparks
- 2021: A Year Full of Surprises
Closing Our Series B Round
You’ve likely read about this already, but one of the highlights of our year was the closing of our Series B round of fundraising. Our company’s influence has been recognized by overseas investors, as well as the Taiwanese government. Not only did we successfully raise $16 million through Series B funding, but we were also selected as a “Next Big” company representative by the Taiwan National Development Council. Kdan’s technology, profitability, and forward-thinking in all aspects are sufficient to represent Taiwan’s achievements in the digital economy. Each thousand-mile journey begins with a single step… so let’s review Kdan’s 2021 story together!
Connection, Even in Isolation
Among the facets of daily life that have changed the most is how we interact with one another. The Pandemic completely changed our work life, and many services have moved completely online. The amount of focus placed spent on online interaction has increased, and many people have formed new virtual habits and customs. While taking a look at these new routines, we’ve realized that they are, for the most part, based on people’s essential needs. As a global brand with a focus on the mobile workplace, we continuously strive to create more efficient and effective mobile services.
Taiwan, the location of our headquarters, was hit hard by the Pandemic this year. For the safety of the employees, Kdan temporarily paused work in the office. Although Kdan’s employees are no stranger to working and collaborating remotely, many did not expect WFH mode to last for more than two months. In order to maintain interpersonal connections and synergy among colleagues and improve morale, we held online team-building lunch dates and yoga classes to relax the body, mind, and soul. These activities not only encouraged contact between colleagues and friends but also brought employees joy and something to look forward to throughout times of isolation.
Bringing Renewed Innovation
Being in the software as a service industry requires careful and close observation of environmental trends, as well as user experiences, especially in a time of incredibly fast waves of digital transformation. Over the past year, Kdan Mobile has accelerated the speed of software launches and app updates to keep up with these trends.
In order for Kdan’s services to integrate more seamlessly into the fabric of daily office and work operations, our digital signature service, DottedSign, has launched a variety of team signing functions to help small- and medium-sized businesses. These functions can help many overcome the difficulties and hassle of face-to-face document signing, and save time and money in the long run. DottedSign has also collaborated with Zapier, an online integration platform, to further help users automate their workflows with other business tools, including more than 3,000 cloud-based software.
As many corporate operations have stayed fully remote or introduced new hybrid modes, Kdan’s PDF software development kit (SDK) and Document AI solutions were tailored and launched specifically for corporate units and other software developers. Corporate users now have the ability to integrate Kdan PDF app functions with their own internal systems and programs. They can also use the advanced document processing technology offered by Document AI to manage and organize a large number of documents.
Closing the Interactive Gap
Kdan is devoted to closing the interaction gap that online schooling brings to students and teachers alike. Teachers and administrators are forced to be very flexible during this time, requiring high levels of efficiency. Through participating in the 2021 Taiwan Education and Technology Exhibition, we showcased Kdan software’s services, as well as potential scenarios and solutions that could benefit campuses and schools alike.
This endeavor also created some impacts on the global level. In the Associazone Avisco Organization in Brescia, Italy, Animation Desk has been chosen as a tool of choice for schoolchildren to artistically express themselves. We’re proud and hope to use our software for the good of global education and welfare!
New Collaborations, New Sparks
We sought to find a variety of influencers and users who were interested in our products to test our creative services and products. We were able to grow our following and exposure through many different influencers’ channels, reach different customer profiles, and reputable endorsements. PDF Reader and Animation Desk are two notable services that have gained many long-term loyal users through these collaborations and exposures, some of which have turned into collaborative professional relationships.
We also extend this collaborative spirit to the educational sector. This past year, DottedSign partnered with campuses across Taiwan (National Cheng Kung University, New Taipei City Education Department) to bring quicker, more streamlined signature processes to save time and human resources. Throughout this experience, we learned a lot, and hope to have even more opportunities to collaborate with governmental and educational institutions in the future to make a difference in our communities.
2021: A Year Full of Surprises
This year, Kdan Mobile jumped to #1 on the TechCrunch Taiwan startup list; we are grateful and proud to have achieved this status. It has also pushed us to explore and work with companies in other fields, striving for innovation and creativity. Thus, we participated in a hackathon held by the Information Technology Conference that re-examined different aspects of data-driven thinking and innovation. Through this hackathon, we discussed the implementation and improvement of digital signatures in different industries and with the hybrid-working mode; we also engaged in an online webinar with some of DottedSign’s loyal users.
The most special surprise of 2021 was producing our first Kdan TV commercial. This opportunity led Kdan and DottedSign to outreach and become more visible to a different type of audience; TV was a new and exciting medium to try out! Going forward, we hope to be able to reach more people via different channels and media to bring awareness to our services.
2021 is indeed challenging, but thanks to your support, it is also a rewarding year. Coming up in 2022, we seek to focus our attention and development on introducing new aspects, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and technology integration, as well as continuing to improve the existing products. Through these efforts, we hope to provide more solutions to boost productivity, efficiency, and creativity.