Kima Ventures is one of the world's most active early-stage investors, investing in 2 to 3 startups per week all over the world; providing founders with funding, network, and support for them to reach the next steps of their journey. The firm invests from seed to Series A, mostly as lead investor but also working alongside other investors; backing ambitious founders who work hard to build awesome things that more and more people use everyday. The company helps them to build a great team, to learn very quickly, to keep the right focus and execute towards growth. Kima takes pride of itself in working side-by-side with entrepreneurs. They claim to understand that fundraising is only one step in the company’s journey, that’s why they take quick decisions and make the fundraising process as smooth as possible so the founders can get back to the work of building their business. Kima considers itself not only an investor, but a network of founders and experts sharing a pay it forward mindset. Headquartered in Paris with an office in London, the company was founded and backed by Xavier Niel, founder of Iliad and supporter of entrepreneurs through such projects as 42, Station F and 101projets. Over the last 5 years Kima has invested in over 400 startups in 24 different countries.

Kima Ventures

The Family is building the largest and most sophisticated service infrastructure for startups in Europe. Their model is to take 5% equity for free in exchange of long-term support. Today, they have a portfolio of 200+ active companies in London, Paris and Berlin, including Captain Train (acquired by Trainline), Algolia and Payfit.

The Family

In 2015, two independant investment teams were created in Paris inside Otium Capital, Pierre-Edouard Stérin's family office: * Otium Venture, focused on Seed investments in Tech companies (€40m invested in 14 companies among which Payfit, Doctrine, Owkin...) * Otium Brands, focused on Seed & Series A investments in Consumer Goods companies  In 2019, the two teams spun off to become independant investment firms: * Otium Venture became frst * Otium Brands became Eutopia

Otium Capital

Accel is an early and growth-stage venture capital firm that powers a global community of entrepreneurs. Accel backs entrepreneurs who have what it takes to build a business.  Accel’s vision for entrepreneurship and business enables it to identify and invest in the companies that will be responsible for the growth of next-generation industries. Accel-backed companies include Atlassian, Braintree, Cloudera, DJI, Dropbox, Dropcam, Etsy, Facebook, Flipkart, Lookout Security, MoPub, Qualtrics, Slack, Spotify, Supercell, Vox Media, and others.

Accel

Bpifrance provides financial solutions for companies that are booting up the listing on the stock exchange and credit equity. It includes OSEO, CDC Entreprises, FSI, and FSI Regions to offer in your area of financial solutions at every stage of the life of your business.

Bpifrance

Eurazeo is a private equity and venture capital firm that invests in SMEs and manages a diversified portfolio of assets. With its expertise in private equity, real estate, and private debt, the group supports companies of all sizes in their development commitment through the commitment of its 235 professionals. It provides companies with the necessary investments needed to realize their growth potential. The firm was founded in 1969 and is based in Paris, Ile-de-France, France.

Eurazeo

Frst is a seed-stage venture firm focused on supporting a new generation of French entrepreneurs with global ambitions.

Frst

General Atlantic is a private equity firm that provides capital and strategic support for growth companies. General Atlantic combines a collaborative approach, sector-specific expertise, a long-term investment horizon, and a deep understanding of growth drivers to partner with great entrepreneurs and management teams to build market businesses.

General Atlantic

PayFit

PayFit offers technology that simplifies and automates payroll and HR processes for small and medium-sized businesses. It provides users the visibility and automation they need to easily manage payroll, with the support of payroll experts. The company supports the digital transformation of businesses through a growing range of product features and services.

PayFit integrates HR management software and payroll under one platform. The platform’s benefits, onboarding, expenses, and shift management, in addition to payroll. The company’s HR tools provide employee performance reviews, campaign management, one-to-one meetings, organizational charts and approval rights, leave management and expense management (optical character recognition [OCR] features). Notably, the company offers data analysis to identify gender pay gaps in organizations.

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

Remote Work Infrastructure

Pigment, Payfit and Owkin-backer Frst has closed €72m of third fund

PayFit integrates HR management software and payroll under one platform. The platform’s benefits, onboarding, expenses, and shift management, in addition to payroll. The company’s HR tools provide employee performance reviews, campaign management, one-to-one meetings, organizational charts and approval rights, leave management and expense management (optical character recognition [OCR] features). Notably, the company offers data analysis to identify gender pay gaps in organizations.Further, PayFit offers integrations with third-party software such as HR, accounting, pension, expenses and HRMC submissions. The platform also provides compliance services and remains up to date on regulatory changes.The company generates revenue through monthly subscriptions, starting at GBP 25 and upwards (~USD 32)Key customers and partnershipsAs of April 2024, the company had over 16,000 small and medium enterprises using its platform.Funding and financialsIn <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/7598">January 2022</a>, PayFit raised EUR 254 million (~USD 289 million) in a Series E funding round led by General Atlantic, valuing the company at EUR 1.8 billion (~USD 2.1 billion). Funds were earmarked to diversify its product portfolio, expand headcount, improve third-party product integration and customer service, and increase its footprint across Europe. Additionally, the round followed 70% year-over-year growth in annual recurring revenue in 2021.

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

PayFit

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