GoButler On-Demand Service App Heads For The States

A Germany-based startup is uprooting itself — at least for the time being — and heading for the U.S.

TechCrunch reported yesterday (Jan. 6) that GoButler — the messaging-based personal assistant — has paused its German operations to focus solely on the U.S. (the company already has an office in New York).

GoButler CEO and Founder Navid Hadzaad remarked in a statement (shared by TechCrunch): “In the coming months, GoButler’s attention will be shifting 100 percent to focus on the U.S. market, investing all resources into building and advancing our product and technology. In doing so, we have decided to pause operations in Germany to focus and invest in the U.S. market for 2016.”

As first reported in Germany’s Gründerszene, Hadzaad also confirmed that GoButler’s other two founders, Maximilian Deilmann and Jens Urbaniak, have left the company, commenting, “We are very proud of what we have built and achieved together, and I thank Max and Jens for their outstanding work.”

TechCrunch posits that GoButler’s withdrawal from Germany is not an indication that the company is scaling back operations, noting that the U.S. — in particular its big cities, like New York — presents a significantly larger marketplace for the on-demand economy of which the startup is a part. GoButler, the outlet adds, has recently made some hires from companies, including Apple, Yahoo, Zendesk and Google, giving credence to the notion that it is looking to improve its overall tech.

It also bears noting that GoButler’s most recent round of fundraising, which was announced at the end of July, was led by General Catalyst Partners — a U.S.-based company — and TechCrunch shares that the startup just announced that American actor/musician Jared Leto has become a GoButler investor.