Matchstick Ventures supports the creation and growth of early-stage technology companies in rapidly growing yet underserved startup ecosystems. The firm prefers to invest in seed-stage, early-stage, and later-stage companies. The firm seeks to invest in the business products, business services, information technology, and TMT sectors.

Matchstick Ventures

Techstars is a global platform that provides investment and innovation. Through the Techstars Worldwide Entrepreneur Network, founders and their teams connect with other entrepreneurs, experts, mentors, alumni, investors, community leaders, and corporate partners who will help their companies grow. Techstars operates four divisions: Techstars Mentorship-Driven Accelerator Program supercharges success and Techstars Startup Programs inspire, educate, and connect entrepreneurs. Techstars Venture Capital Fund invests in innovative and disruptive companies. Techstars Corporate Innovation Partnerships help brands create products and services. Techstars' accelerator portfolio includes more than 1,000 companies with a market cap of $8.1 billion.

Techstars

Sofia  Fund invests in women-led, technology-based, and business growth. It uncovers and qualifies only the best investment opportunities from thousands of ideas through extensive due diligence and then actively invests to grow its portfolio companies and bring them successfully to profitable exits. Its main office is in Minneapolis, Minnesota and it was founded in 2006.

Sofia Fund

Techstars Workforce Development Accelerator’s mission is human-centric, supporting and investing in founders to build impact and value at the intersection of education, education funding, labor markets, business productivity, employer-employee success, social capital networks, and the future of work. Its partners are ZOMALAB, Strada Education Network and Colorado Thrives collectively committed to innovation in workforce development, with each partner bringing their own unique perspectives, resources, and contributions to this program. In addition to experience-based research, all Workforce Accelerator partners will offer mentorship that will accelerate participating Workforce startups.

Techstars Workforce Development Accelerator

Origin Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm that invests in high-growth software, marketplace, and consumer businesses shaping the 'Digital Native Economy'.  Founded in 1999, the firm has the unique distinction of having multiple funds in the top 5% on realized performance. Typical check size is $500K to $8M. Select exits include Grubhub (NYSE: GRUB), BacklotCars, Tock, Ahalogy, and Teem. To learn more, visit www.originventures.com.

Origin Ventures

The Hartford they provide property and casualty insurance, group benefits and mutual funds.

The Hartford

Firework Ventures is an angel investment firm that invests in the initial stages of human-centered work companies. They define the future of employment as a technology that provides opportunity and propels social and economic mobility.

Firework Ventures

Bramalea Partners seeks for large, growing, well-established industries that are ripe for disruption via technology. Bramalea Partners provides expansion capital to help scale and grow a business that has a very large total addressable market that is easy to understand.

Bramalea Partners

HearstLab is an early-stage venture fund focused on women-led startups innovating across the enterprise technology, data analytics, health, fintech, transportation and media spaces. To date, HearstLab has invested in over 56 companies at the Seed and Series A stages, with four successful exits. The firm often participates as a co-investor and in follow-on rounds.  HearstLab is a venture arm of the Hearst Corporation (''Hearst'') and provides one year of services in addition to cash investments. With access to Hearst's resources across 360+ businesses, HearstLab’s breadth of services includes providing assistance with commercial deals, privacy and security, legal services, marketing support and raising capital. Portfolio companies also benefit from the strategic guidance and resource support of HearstLab Scouts, women leaders across Hearst who share their networks and expertise. HearstLab has a full-time dedicated team assisting with UI/UX, DevOps engineering, data security, data science, brand storytelling, financial modeling and business development.

HearstLab

TiLT

The Inclusive Leave Management Solution for Every Life-Changing Moment. Be Compliant. Save Time. Save Money. Be Human.

TiLT is a web-based leave management platform that assists employers with handling compliance and payroll related to paid leave by incorporating the latest legislative and compliance changes in real time. The platform automates employee leave applications, and HR personnel can manage leave requests as well as related payroll and compliance tasks via its dashboard, through which it aims to increase employee retention, compliance, and HR efficiency. Tilt also offers dedicated one-to-one support through its in-house experts which it believes to be unique to its solution.

Distributed workforces require new solutions for office operations, HR, payment, and more.

Remote Work Infrastructure

TiLT is a web-based leave management platform that assists employers with handling compliance and payroll related to paid leave by incorporating the latest legislative and compliance changes in real time. The platform automates employee leave applications, and HR personnel can manage leave requests as well as related payroll and compliance tasks via its dashboard, through which it aims to increase employee retention, compliance, and HR efficiency. Tilt also offers dedicated one-to-one support through its in-house experts which it believes to be unique to its solution.Key customers and partnershipsTiLT serves companies such as Patreon, Robinhood, and Udemy.Funding and financialsIn May 2024, the company raised USD 15 million, as disclosed by an SEC filing. Funding utilization remained undisclosed. Previously, in <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/16926">March 2023</a>, Tilt raised USD 10 million in a funding round led by Origin Ventures. Funds were earmarked to advance its technology, partnerships and increase headcount.

ActivTrak is a cloud-based productivity monitoring software provider. The platform offers data and analytics which can be used to detect workplace productivity gaps. The platform collects data from employee activity logs and computer screenshots, although it does not log keystrokes or record video of a user’s screen. ActivTrak also facilitates a range of tasks for admins such as blocking websites, flagging suspicious activities, IP address connections, and monitoring web, and app traffic.Other features offered include productivity reports and coaching, headcount and workload management and personal insights. In November 2023, the company added capabilities to measure the usage of AI tools, automatically detecting and classifying the use of such tools and websites to help organizations manage and improve AI adoption across the workforce.Activtrak generates revenue via monthly subscriptions (USD 10 and USD 17) per user, and custom pricing for larger enterprises.Key customers and partnershipsAs of April 2024, over 9,500 enterprises used ActivTrak’s platform, notably including Allstate, asembia and Nobu. ActivTrak closed 2023 with a 40% growth in its customer base (adding ~2,200 customers).Funding and financialsIn November 2020, ActivTrak raised USD 50 million in a Series B round led by Sapphire Ventures. Sapphire Ventures CEO and managing director joined ActivTrak’s board as part of the deal. The new proceeds were earmarked for scaling global sales and marketing campaigns, expansion of its platform using AI driven analytics, and improving integration with its technology partners.

ActivTrak

inFeedo is a people predictive analytics company based in India. The Y Combinator-backed startup founded in 2013 is currently focused on “Amber” (launched in 2016), an AI-enabled bot that helps manage employee engagement, predict attrition, and get a pulse on company culture in real time. The company also offers AI-driven exit surveys and analytics to improve retention.Key customers and partnershipsAs of April 2024, over 700,000 users across 250 organizations utilized inFeedo’s platform. Notable clients included GE Healthcare, Puma, Tata Group, and Lenovo.Funding and financialsIn its latest funding round (<a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/9099">March 2022</a>) inFeedo raised USD 12 million in Series A funding led by Jungle Ventures, reportedly tripling its valuation from less than 18 months ago. The fresh funds will be used for its second employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) buyback for all employees and its go-to-market activities in North America. Further, the company claims it has achieved annual revenue of USD 1.6 million as of November 2020.

inFeedo

Donut provides solutions to keep employees engaged with casual conversations. Its first product, Intros, makes connections between teammates via Slack to emulate quick meetups and in-person introductions at work, which are now virtual.Donut’s new product, Watercooler, launched in October 2020. It attempts to reinvent the micro-interactions between employees at the office watercooler online. The product will integrate with Slack, where a newly-designated channel for Watercooler will be created. The product will post questions automatically within the customers’ desired frequency and pre-selected topics.The company uses a freemium subscription model with paid plans starting at approximately USD 2 per user per month.Key customers and partnershipsThe company claims it has supported four million connections (one million since the Covid-19 pandemic) across its 12,000 customers, including companies such as Okta, Zapier, Slack, The New York Times, and Invision.Funding and financialsDonut announced a USD 12 million funding round led by Accel, along with its new product, Watercooler. The USD 12 million raised was accumulated over multiple rounds before the Covid-19 pandemic, with proceeds earmarked for product development.

Donut

Matter is an employee feedback platform founded by Brett Hellman. Hellman was the founder of messaging app “Hall”, which was founded in 2011 and later sold to Atlassian for USD 20 million in 2015.Matter uses 360-degree feedback to evaluate skills in employees which are linked to career success. The platform links skills such as influence, inclusiveness, empathy, resourcefulness, and multitasking to evaluations. Matter is currently available in beta.

Matter

Mesh is a Y Combinator-backed company that allows employees to set goals, track tasks, share feedback, and engage in one-on-ones. The company also offers an AI coach (Mesh Maven) to help employees stay in line with their key objectives, improve the quality of feedback provided and summarize 1:1s. Mesh also offers nudges and surveys to improve employee engagement alongside relevant analytics.The company generates revenue via monthly subscriptions per user, priced at USD 4 (Base) and USD 7 (Premium).&nbsp;Key customers and partnershipsAs of April 2024, the company served over 100+ enterprises, including NTT Data, Grant Thornton and Groww. The platform also offers integrations with third-party software such as Gmail, Microsoft Teams and Slack, among others.Funding and financialsIn its most recent funding round (<a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/9768">April 2022</a>) Mesh raised USD 11 million in Series A funding led by RTP Global. The fresh funds were earmarked to expand its global footprint across the US and APAC regions. In line with this, the company planned to expand its headcount across the engineering and sales departments.

Mesh

Companies offering tools to infer employee morale (through surveys and quick assessments) and productivity, including functions for goal setting, review, and feedback.

Companies that offer the entire spectrum of HR tools including payroll processing benefits, onboarding, compliance, analytics, scheduling etc

Companies providing either standalone or combined payroll and benefits services to businesses.

EoR - Companies that assist businesses in hiring distributed teams globally in compliance with foreign labor laws. EoRs become the legal employer of offshore employees. Solutions include payroll, benefits, and taxes.

PEO - Companies that offer similar services to EoRs but establish a co-employment arrangement with businesses and do not become the legal employer.

Companies offering tools such as chatbots, surveys, games, and other activities to infer, assess and improve employee morale and sentiment.

Companies that provide a centralized space for employees to access internal and external resources, enterprise applications, and enable workers to communicate across departments, and stay up to date on organizational announcements.

Solutions in this industry hub are predominantly offered under a B2B SaaS model

Employee and performance management solutions use AI/Ml to infer engagement insights and sentiment analysis

Offers tools for companies to hire contractors globally, and conduct employee and performance management

ANALYST_QUICK_TAKE

<div>
 Leave management platform, Tilt, has successfully raised USD 15 million through a Series B funding round. This funding round saw participation from Bramalea Partners, HearstLab, Firework Ventures, Origin Ventures, and Techstars. 
 The funds raised will be utilized to expand the connectivity of the leave of absence ecosystem. This will include building upon existing integrations and developing new strategic partnerships. These enhancements will assist HR users in better supporting their employees.
 
</div> Analyst QuickTake: 
 Tilt has recently secured additional funding, following its previous round in December 2022, providing the company with new growth opportunities. Its leave management software stands out with features like personalized one-to-one support from in-house experts, which continues to attract customers.

TiLT

About EDGE

Contact Us

Resources

Area of Focus

Technology Research Made Effortless