Partech is a global tech investment firm headquartered in Paris, with offices in Berlin, Dakar, Dubai, Nairobi, and San Francisco. We are a team made up of independent thinkers. We are unconstrained by hype, trend or fixed ways of working. We believe in the power of alliance in action, working together and side-by-side with the founders we back, in the shared pursuit of success. We bring together capital, operational experience and strategic support for the entrepreneurs we back from seed through to growth stage. Born in San Francisco 40 years ago, today we manage €2.5bn AUM and our current portfolio of 220 companies in 40 countries, across 4 continents.

Partech

Gradient has been investing at the forefront of artificial intelligence since 2017. We are led by former founders, technical experts, and domain specialists who have supported hundreds of AI founders from the beginning. Gradient is headquartered in San Francisco. For more information, visit www.gradient.com.

Gradient

River Venture Partners is an angel syndicate that focuses on supporting early-stage entrepreneurs in digital media, marketing, e-commerce, entreprise and education technology.

River Venture Partners

Fortino Capital will provide expansion capital and expertise, to exceptional entrepreneurs and companies in Europe and the USA, for building growth enabling SAAS based software platforms, mainly designed for SMEs and for building brands and go-to-market strategies, for media and high-end product manufacturing companies. Additionally, Fortino will invest in companies that have the ambition to reinvent their business model through applying best-in-class management practices and state-of-the-art technologies.

Fortino Capital

Unpopular Ventures invests early in tech startups before they gain popularity. They focus on unconventional opportunities, believing that innovation often arises outside the mainstream. They support teams exploring new markets, unique ideas, and challenging endeavors. Despite their unconventional approach, their early-stage startups have attracted follow-on funding from top investors. Established in 2019, they now invest from both a syndicate and a rolling fund, with $151 million in assets under management (AUM).

Unpopular Ventures

Stormbreaker is an early stage fund focused on capital-efficient startups. We believe in a future where venture capital is more equitable, more efficient, and more genuine. We see an opportunity within venture capital to be a true partner to our founders, not just a check that bides time until the next round. Stormbreaker is industry-agnostic and focused on startups that don’t see capital as an immediate requirement for growth, but instead as the best path forward for their business at the right time. We partner with the high-velocity, high-conviction companies that stand out from their peers because they are driven to build efficiently––companies that prioritize disciplined decision making and market traction over chasing stepped up valuations.  When we make investments, we are committed to our companies for their lifespan. We become trusted and preferred partners to our entrepreneurs, which allows us to take a hands-on approach to growth.

Stormbreaker Ventures

Kaizo

Kaizo builds a performance management platform for customer support teams. It uses gamification and AI to transform support’s performance metrics. Kaizo provides tools to improve operational efficiency, boost team performance and increase employee retention. It is fully integrated into Zendesk and available via Zendesk marketplace and other CRM tools in the future. Founded by Dominik Blattner, Kaizo aims to actively guide employees towards achieving their goals and making an impact in their companies.

Amsterdam-based Kaizo is a workforce performance management platform designed for customer support professionals. It incorporates gamification, AI, and real-time analytics to focus on improving operational efficiency, team performance, and employee retention. Kaizo offers reporting, capacity planning, Q&amp;A tools, and real-time performance analytics. It uses machine learning to analyze up to 50 data points in optimizing the customer service workflow, and guides support teams to replicate those actions through gamified methods.

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

Remote Work Infrastructure

Level up! Performance management software Kaizo turns ‘world’s nicest customers’ into superheroes

Amsterdam-based Kaizo is a workforce performance management platform designed for customer support professionals. It incorporates gamification, AI, and real-time analytics to focus on improving operational efficiency, team performance, and employee retention. Kaizo offers reporting, capacity planning, Q&amp;A tools, and real-time performance analytics. It uses machine learning to analyze up to 50 data points in optimizing the customer service workflow, and guides support teams to replicate those actions through gamified methods.Key customers and partnershipsAs of March 2020, the company served more than 500 companies. In August 2021, Kaizo reported that its customer base grew 200% in 2020, reaching clients in 82 countries. It operates a subscription-based business model with paid plans starting at USD 12 per agent per month.Funding and financialsKaizo raised USD 4 million in an extended seed round led by Fortino Capital in June 2021 for hiring, platform development, and customer acquisition.

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

Kaizo

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