Pitch Software GmbH is a Berlin-based software company building a collaborative presentation platform that competes directly with Microsoft PowerPoint, Apple Keynote and Google Slides. The company was founded in 2018 by Christian Reber, the former chief executive of Wunderlist, alongside several Wunderlist alumni after Microsoft acquired their previous company.
Pitch raised its early rounds from Index Ventures, Thrive Capital, Tiger Global and a syndicate of operator angels including Stewart Butterfield and Tobi Lutke, reaching a reported valuation of around 600 million dollars at its 2021 Series B before broader software-multiple compression.
The product targets product, marketing and sales teams who need real-time multi-author editing, brand-locked templates, an integrated analytics layer for tracking deck views, and tight integrations with Notion, Slack, Figma and Loom. Pitch operates a freemium business model with paid Pro and Business tiers and runs a fully remote-first workforce with a Berlin registered seat.
The company has positioned itself as the first serious European challenger in workplace productivity software since SAP, with Reber publicly arguing that Berlin is now a credible alternative to San Francisco for B2B SaaS founders.
Pitch is a textbook example of how second-time German founders structure a Berlin SaaS company that intends to take large dollar-denominated venture rounds. The operating entity is Pitch Software GmbH, registered in the Berlin Handelsregister at the Amtsgericht Charlottenburg, with the standard 25,000 euro minimum subscribed capital that German GmbH law requires under the GmbH-Gesetz.
Notarized articles of association were filed with a Berlin notary at incorporation, the founding-shareholder list was deposited with the registry, and the managing director appointments were entered in the Handelsregister B section.
As is now common for venture-backed Berlin tech companies that raise from US-led funds, Pitch added a holding-parent layer above the operating GmbH; this enables a clean preferred-share waterfall using Delaware-style terms that German GmbH share-class law does not natively support, and it gives Index Ventures, Thrive and Tiger a vehicle that their fund formation documents recognize.
The Mittelstand tradition of close, family-influenced governance is largely absent in fast-growing Berlin SaaS; instead Pitch operates with a streamlined supervisory advisory board and a small management body of two or three Geschaftsfuhrer.
If Pitch eventually progresses toward an IPO, the predictable path is GmbH-to-AG conversion under the Umwandlungsgesetz, then a likely AG-to-SE conversion after listing to mirror Delivery Hero and Zalando.
BaFin oversight does not apply because Pitch sells software rather than financial services, but data-protection registration with the Berlin Beauftragter fur Datenschutz und Informationsfreiheit and DSGVO compliance are core regulatory items.
The notarized founding requirement, the Mittelstand-influenced two-tier governance defaults, and the Lux-or-Dutch parent above the GmbH together capture the modern Berlin SaaS structure better than any single document.
The founding team is German and Berlin offers a deep pool of product, design and engineering talent at lower cost than London or San Francisco. The GmbH form gives limited liability with relatively low capital requirements and is well understood by European clients.
For US-style preferred-share economics, the typical pattern is to add a Luxembourg or Dutch parent above the GmbH at Series A rather than redomiciling the entire operating entity, which preserves German employment contracts and VAT registration.
The Handelsregister is the public commercial register maintained at each Amtsgericht across Germany. Pitch Software GmbH is entered in the B section, which covers GmbHs, AGs and SEs. The register records the legal name, registered seat, share capital, articles of association, managing directors, shareholder list and any later changes.
Third parties rely on the Handelsregister entry as authoritative public proof of corporate existence and authority, and contracts signed by an unregistered Geschaftsfuhrer can be challenged.
Yes. Under section 2 of the GmbH-Gesetz, the formation of a GmbH requires a notarial deed for the articles of association, and any subsequent share transfer also requires notarization under section 15. This is one of the structural differences from Anglo-American common-law jurisdictions where simple board minutes suffice.
The notary verifies the identity of the founders, the share-capital deposit, and the lawfulness of the articles before submitting the application to the Handelsregister.
Yes, and this is the standard pre-IPO path. The Umwandlungsgesetz allows form-changing conversion from GmbH to AG and then from AG to SE without dissolving the legal entity, preserving contracts, employment relationships and tax history. AG conversion requires raising minimum capital to 50,000 euros and adopting a two-tier supervisory and management board.
SE conversion requires a qualifying two-year cross-border EU subsidiary relationship, which most Berlin SaaS companies meet through their EU sales offices.
