Microsoft seems to be on a roll when it comes to building out a suite of popular apps that aim to make people become more productive.
The company is spending between $100 million and $200 million on 6Wunderkinder GmbH, the Berlin, Germany-based startup behind the popular productivity app Wunderlist, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal which cited a person familiar with the matter.
Assuming the deal goes through it will allow Microsoft to have put together a trinity of mobile apps focused on email, calendars and now to-do lists. Last year Microsoft picked up the e-mail app Acompli, which allowed users to more quickly respond to email with template answers and featured a smarter system for organizing the inbox. Microsoft quickly re-branded the service as Outlook. Then earlier this year it bough the calendar app Sunrise which has continued to operate independently.
Wunderlist is a well-regarded app, having gained a four-and-a-half star rating on the App Store, and it essentially allows users to create to-do lists they can share with friends or co-workers.
Since multiple parties can edit lists, the app doubles up as a collaboration tool that works across desktop and mobile. Apple featured the desktop version of the Wunderlist as its Mac App of the Year in 2013.
Last month the service integrated with Slack to show its tasks and notifications in the work-collaboration tool while its users chatted in real time.
Startup 6Wunderkinder was founded in 2010 by six friends (two designers and four engineers) in Berlin, who launched Wunderlist as a desktop app in November that year, following that up with an iPhone app a month later.
The company has since raised $23.9 million in five running rounds, including $19 million in 2013 from Sequoia Capital, which also counts Evernote and Dropbox in its portfolio.
When describing the inception of Wunderlist, Chief Executive Christian Reber said the service complemented those larger peers:
“Users want Dropbox for files, Evernote for notes and Wunderlist for tasks,” Reber said. “That’s our space, that’s where we’re going to achieve category leadership.” Wunderlist makes money by selling premium subscription to power users called Wunderlist Pro and Wunderlist for Business cost between $5 and $50 a month.
