Awardco, a Provo-based human resources startup, has closed $65 million in Series A funding to help employers create a workplace culture.
The funding round, which was led by General Catalyst and Qualtrics co-founder and Utah Jazz majority owner Ryan Smith, was the largest Series A ever raised by an HR SaaS company. The capital brings the total funding raised by the startup to $70. Paul Kwan, General Catalyst Managing Director, referred to the round by stating:
“Awardco has scaled an impressive enterprise software business while bootstrapping it from the ground up. This is particularly rare in today’s marketplace where the prevailing mentality is often growth at any cost. Awardco’s DNA is reminiscent of Atlassian and Qualtrics, two other bootstrapped companies that I have had the privilege to work with.”
Awardco was founded by Steve Sonnenberg to revolutionize how employee rewards are used by enterprises to recognize their employees, fomenting value-based behavior in the process. The startup is already working with over 1,000 companies around the world, allowing over 3 million employees to receive over 9 million recognitions via its platform. Sonnenberg said about this mission:
“Employee recognition hasn’t changed in 100 years, and it isn’t working. With the Great Resignation impacting all areas of business, efforts to improve retention, engagement, and culture can no longer be a function of just HR. People are catching on to Awardco’s vision: to drive culture and build true employee loyalty by aligning efforts across all areas of business operations. There are no shortcuts; addressing one area of the employee experience alone is not cutting it. Organizations must provide real value to their people. With this support from investors, Awardco is primed to completely change the way organizations reward and recognize their people.”
Working conditions have changed dramatically over the past decade and especially over the past two years. The Society for Human Resource Management has found that Gen Z and Millenials thrive when their good work is recognized, with this practice being essential for them to feel satisfied at work.
In a survey, the organization found that 50% of them don’t feel like management recognizes strong job performance, which drives them to seek better job experiences elsewhere. By changing how companies reward their employees, Awardco seeks to increase retention rates, employee loyalty, and satisfaction. in the workplace.
