A Series C investment for German start-up Staffbase was led by Insight Partners.
Mobile-first platform Staffbase has raised $23m (€20.5m) in Series C funding, bringing the total raised by the company since it launched to $35m (€31m).
Founded in 2014 in the German city of Chemnitz, Staffbase is a mobile application that provides employees with a platform to communicate, access work-related services and stay up to date with any news or information the company has to share with them.
CEO of Staffbase, Dr Martin Böhringer, founded the company after noticing the way that workplaces are changing.
Staffbase believes: “As the nature of work rapidly changes, the people responsible for creating products, providing services or interacting with customers are less likely to be found under one roof. These remote workers were once at a disadvantage: beyond the reach of their company intranet, they had limited access to information meant to help them do their jobs.”
In a statement, Böhringer said: “Successful companies today understand that their most valuable resource is their employees’ time and motivation.
“Despite this, the experience provided to them when interacting with company news, searching for information on an intranet, or using HR services is often frustrating and disjointed. The experience tends to be even worse for workers without access to company computers or corporate email addresses, which makes up about 70pc of the workforce today.”
Böhringer, along with CMO Frank Wolf and COO Dr Lutz Gerlach, developed a complete employee app after gaining years of experience designing intranets and software products aimed at workplaces.
Based between New York City and Germany, Staffbase allows employees from every level of the company (from head office to the front line) to communicate with one another and connect on the Staffbase app.
The CEO added: “We’re also big believers in equal access to positive experiences. Our platform was first developed as a mobile app with non-desk employees in mind, and over time we have taken the user experience we saw working there and applied it to a sophisticated desktop experience as well. Because we developed mobile first and with normal people in mind, the whole platform is easy to use.”
The Series C investment was led by Insight Partners, with participation from existing investors E.ventures, Capnamic Ventures and Kizoo Technology Capital.
Teddie Wardi, managing director at Insight Partners, applauded the application that Staffbase has developed over the years: “They discovered that employee communication plays a crucial role for a people-first workplace and belongs at the heart of the employee experience. We were particularly impressed with the high customer satisfaction and usage rates that Staffbase achieves with its customers.”
Upon the announcement of today’s funding, Staffbase pointed to one of its major clients: “DHL is a great Staffbase customer example. They are rolling out to more than 350,000 employees across hundreds of locations in over 200 countries.”
At present, Staffbase has more than 200 employees based in seven locations. Staffbase says it is trusted by the world’s top communications professionals, including Siemens, Adidas Group, Brinks, Audi Brussels, Daimler and Rhi Magnesita.