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performance management startup social crowd has raised a pre-seed round of $1.6 million led by Bread & Butter Ventures, TechCrunch has exclusively learned.
Launched in 2020, SocialCrowd is a SaaS platform that provides performance management software, allowing companies to set goals for their employees and reward them when they achieve them. Speaking to TechCrunch, SocialCrowd co-founder Rafael Akincipp compared his product to a Fitbit, but for work.
According to Akinsip, a customer can set up incentive campaigns with specific goals, and SocialCrowd tracks the customer’s employee performance in real-time by connecting to existing productivity apps. SocialCrowd then sends reminders to employees to achieve their goals, and when goals are achieved, employees are awarded points that they can redeem for gift cards or custom rewards, such as a vacation.
He said SocialCrowd has seen an increase in attention as companies have struggled with the move to remote work. “Many of our customers have large blue-collar shift teams; Their staff was not able to shift to remote work during or after the pandemic,” Akinsip said. “Many of these companies have struggled to retain employees, creating even greater demand for solutions that increase employee retention and productivity.”
work software Despite the economic downturn, it remains a bright spot for investors. The possibility of a connection between increased productivity by work software and increased returns on investment is attractive to investors, and they are also attracted by the fact that corporations spend money on work software even when the economy is bad.
However, Akinship said the fundraising was a marathon for his company. This round took them about nine months to close and they met most of their key investors through referrals. “Last year was a difficult time for everyone to mobilize,” he said. “There were a lot of ‘no’s’ and even more ‘not yet’, so it took a lot of patience and creativity to finish the whole round.”
VC414, Serac Ventures and Gala Capital Partners also participated in the round. SocialCrowd will use the pre-seed money to expand its team and focus on customer acquisition.
Mary Grove, managing partner of Bread & Butter, said the company liked SocialCrowd’s consumer-first approach and focus on employees. “By reaction [the company’s] Existing customers have encouraged us that this platform is beneficial to both employers and frontline workers in those organizations,” she told TechCrunch. “We’re backed by an incredibly smart team that is deeply versed in enterprise SaaS and building with a product-first lens.”
“I envision a future where our platform will provide more than just incentives and rewards, but will truly be a tool for employee development and business insight,” Akincipay said.
Akincipay and his co-founder Paul Doran first met as roommates in college. Together, they started a hardware startup that raised a small amount of money, but could not find an exit. “From that point on, we knew we would continue on the entrepreneurial journey,” Akincipe said.
The two launched a few startups, including web designing firm Glow Station and website management service Just Media Studios. Akincipay has held jobs at Google as well as Casetabs, which was sold to Bain Capital.
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