A Personal Note 📔

Note-taking apps are making a comeback. From the free versions available from Apple, Microsoft, and Google to a range of paid versions that allow you to “do more,” including syncing your notes across devices and storing them in the cloud, investors are taking a second look at the convenience of note-taking apps as productivity apps help WFH-ers juggle and balance tasks remotely. 

Photo Source: Bear

• Roam Research, founded in 2018 in San Francisco, received its seed funding in September of $9MM throwing it into a $200MM valuation. And this was all achieved after launching its product to the public just last fall. The power of the tool lies in its ability to interlink between documents. 
• Coda also raised a fresh Round C of funding in August after 5 years of organic growth and has doubled its valuation as a result. The company was founded in 2014 in San Francisco and prides itself on being able to integrate notes between spreadsheets.
• Notion Labs raised $50MM in April, helping it receive its shiny unicorn status. Moving beyond individual note-taking, Notion allows teams to manage notes and checklists together, boldly stating it can replace other workplace productivity programs like Asana, Confluence, Jira, and more. It has exploded in growth as the pandemic pushed teams to work remotely as a way to keep track of work progress. The company was founded in 2016 in San Francisco.  
• Bear is the designer’s dream of note-taking apps with a heavy focus on the esthetics of the app, using “write beautifully” as its key selling point. The note application is only available for iOS and is consistently one of the top-performing apps. In a blog post published in 2018, the company has mentioned it wants to keep a lean, private organization without taking outside investment, focusing on organic growth through its paid subscription income. 
• Notability is one of the older note-taking companies and was founded in 2008 in San Francisco. Its core strength lies in the ability to create handwritten notes with a stylus in addition to recording audio, a function that hits home for online learning. The company recently launched a new tool called Twoird which aims to declutter the email inbox. 
• Evernote is the king of note-taking applications for its early success riding on the shift towards smartphone and mobile note-taking but is coined a failed unicorn. It has had a bumpy ride since its founding in 2007 including multiple scalebacks, layoffs and even going through a phase of trying to expand into a lifestyle brand. Although it continues to be plagued by newer companies like those previously mentioned, its refocus towards the product includes the launch of a major redesign in September.