Wake (software)

Wake is a cloud-based team collaboration app developed by the company Wake, Inc., that allows designers to share their work, exchange IDeaS and provide immediate feedback with their team. The application is available on Web, Mac and iOS. Wake was co-founded in 2013 by early Facebook product designer, Chris Kalani, along with Johan Bakken and Tobias Bæck, of Bakken & Bæck and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

Overview

Wake was founded on October 1, 2013. Beginning in February 2015, it offered a six-month private beta of the product in addition to a 30-days free trial for individuals and teams. On August 18, 2015, Wake launched to the public as a privately held entity.

The company is backed by First Round, Slow Ventures, Designer Fund, Alliance Venture, Tikhon Bernstam, Jake Lodwick, Jared Morgenstern, Naomi Gleit, Brandon Brock and Brendan Holsberry and raised $3.8 million in its first seed round in August 2015.

Wake is available as a web application, desktop app for Mac, and mobile app for iOS, including Apple TV. The desktop software and iOS app allow designers to take screenshots of their work and upload them directly from their design tools into a gridded timeline. Designers can leave comments and follow along as work progresses through the use of different features.

When Wake announced a private beta in August 2014, the company received nearly 2,000 invite requests within the first day. By the time Wake launched publicly in August 2015, the startup was servicing around 900 companies.