A Total Eclipse ... Of Your Brand?

The musical accompaniment for today’s newsletter (and the eclipse thingy). Bonnie Tyler might not have been singing about Work Tech back in the 1980s, but she certainly expresses lots of our hopes and fears right now. Turn around? There’s certainly the mood in the air that the total eclipse of the IPO market is moving out of the zone of totality.

Colin Stewart, Morgan Stanley’s global head of technology equity capital markets and the banker who took Reddit public, told The Information that recent IPOs have sent a signal that investors are more open to taking risks on relatively unproven companies. “I believe the last two transactions usher us out of a sober, clinical market into a lean-in market. The economy is stabilizing, and AI is a secular theme creating a lot of momentum.”

Whether or not you believe that this is the beginning of the end, or the end of the beginning, or a complete false start, it’s worth focusing on what we can control. For most companies in Work Tech, that means brand, and it means rebuilding trust. People always ask us what we are hearing, thinking, and doing from the market. Right now? It’s brand. Brands are damaged. They’ve been underinvested in and neglected. They need work. Why? Brand absolutely drives B2B purchasing decisions.?

If you think 2024 will be a better year than 2022 or 2023 — and if you think 2025 will be better than 2024 — get your act together on brand. It’s time.

What else is going on this week?

Microsoft Unbundles Teams

The company will split up its workplace messaging and video calls app from its Office platform globally as it attempts to avoid antitrust regulators. Will it matter?

PODCAST: The Future of Payroll

Nico Simko, founder and CEO at Clair, joins our colleague, Joel Stupka, to discuss how on-demand pay actually works behind the scenes and what the future of payroll could look like. WATCH AND LISTEN

Funding and Acquisitions

• Remote acquires Easop. The San Francisco EOR power brand completed the acquisition of the NYC-based compliance solution for businesses with international talent to grant and manage equity to their teams across 70+ countries. (FinSMEs)?
• ITA Group acquires Cooleaf. The employee engagement solutions company enhances its services with the acquisition of the award-winning recognition and rewards SaaS technology platform. Congrats to Cooleaf co-founder Sarwar Bhuiyan and his team! (Press Release)
• Homebase raises $60 million Series D. The San Francisco startup offers an app for hourly teams at 100,000+ businesses, which features scheduling, time tracking, payroll, earned-wage access, messaging, and HR tools. Congrats to CEO and founder John Waldmann and his team! (FinSMEs)
• Fieldguide raises $30 million Series B. The San Francisco startup offers an AI platform for advisory and audit services. Congrats to CEO Jin W. Chang and his team! (FinSMEs)
• Borderless AI raises $27 million seed round. The Toronto, Canada-based AI-powered Employer of Record (EOR) startup also offers a suite of related services, including global contractor management, localized benefits, and visa and immigration support. Congrats to founders Willson Cross and Sean Aggarwal and their team! (FinSMEs)
• Seso raises $26 million. The San Francisco startup offers a workforce management platform for agriculture. Congrats to founders Michael Guirguis, Jordan Taylor, and their team! (TechCrunch)
• Modal raises $25 million Series A. The San Mateo, California, startup offers a skills development platform for data and analytics professionals. Congrats to founder and CEO Darren Shimkus and his team! (FinSMEs)
• Read AI raises $21 million Series A. The Seattle startup offers AI-generated summaries, transcripts, and playback for meetings, emails, and messages to improve efficiency. (CB Insights)
• Tennr raises $18 million Series A. The NYC startup automates manual work for healthcare organizations. Congrats to CEO and co-founder Trey Holterman and his team! (FinSMEs)
• Confetti raises $16 million Series A. The NYC startup offers a platform to handle team-building activities for companies. Congrats to CEO and founder Lee Rubin and her team! (FinSMEs)
• ZayZoon raises $15 million Series B extension. The Phoenix, Arizona, Earned-Wage Access (EWA) startup focuses on SMBs.? (FinSMEs)
• Coadjute raises $12.56 million Series A. The London startup optimizes and tracks construction projects from inception to occupation through open data, shared ledgers, orchestrated workflow, contract automation, and analytics. (CB Insights)
• 401GO raises $10 million Series A. The Sandy, Utah, startup offers automated 401(k) retirement plans for small businesses, financial advisors, accountants, payroll providers, and HR providers. (CB Insights)
• Nominal raises $9.2 million seed round. The NYC-based generative AI startup is trying to bridge the gap between outdated, costly ERP systems and the financial management needs of modern mid-market businesses. (FinSMEs)
• RallyPoint Networks raises $8.3 million venture round. The Middleton, Massachusetts, startup offers peer counseling, job placement, mentorship, and a platform for service members, veterans, and their supporters. (Press Release)
• Scaleup Finance raises $8 million seed round. The K?benhavn, Denmark, startup offers a financial management platform tailored for startups, scaleups, and SMEs. The platform provides services such as dedicated CFO partnership, budgeting, forecasting, reporting, bookkeeping, payments, and payroll management. (Financial IT)
• Metaview raises $7 million Series A. The London startup specializes in AI-powered note-taking solutions for the recruitment sector. (TechCrunch)
• Cloverleaf raises $7.3 million Series A extension. The Cincinnati startup is an automated coaching technology company. (FinSMEs)
• OneNotary raises $5 million Series A. The San Francisco startup is an online, on-demand notarization provider. (FinSMEs)
• Sablier raises $4.5 million seed round. The London startup offers a token streaming protocol that enables by-the-second payments in web3. The company is used by DAOs and businesses for vesting, payroll, airdrops, and more. (CB Insights)
• Buddywise raises $3.79 million seed round. The Stockholm, Sweden-based AI-powered provides a workplace safety platform. (FinSMEs)
• Work & Mother raises $3.5 million seed round. The Houston startup specializes in providing commercial lactation suite amenities and technology for working mothers within the office environment. (CB Insights)
• Fluree raises $3.13 million Series A. The Winston-Salem, North Carolina, startup offers a cryptographically secure semantic graph database for startups, government agencies, and large enterprises. (CB Insights)
• Ailytics raises $2.7 million Pre-Series A. The Singapore-based B2B heavy industry software startup offers scenario-based AI-powered video analytics monitoring for safety, productivity, and compliance. (FinSMEs)
• ABABA raises $2.44 million Series A. The Japanese startup evaluates the efforts of job seekers throughout the interview process, allowing them to be scouted through a special selection flow by companies. (CB Insights)
• Joinrs raises $1.84 million. The company is a Milan, Italy-based provider of an AI-based job board connecting university students and junior profiles to corporations. (FinSMEs)
• RecruitU raises $1.75 million convertible note. The NYC startup offers a platform that integrates application tracking, personalized job suggestions, and intelligent networking recommendations, aiming to streamline and personalize the job search process for the finance and consulting sectors. (CB Insights)
• StepsConnect raises $1.08 million. The Milan, Italy-based recruitment platform helps companies to find qualified candidates quickly. (FinSMEs)
• Tango raises Series A. The San Francisco startup offers a digital adoption and process documentation platform that captures any process and converts it into an easy-to-follow, interactive how-to guide. Terms were not disclosed. (CB Insights)
• Smile API raises seed round. The Singapore startup offers a single API that provides user-authorized access to comprehensive and verified employment data in real-time from various sources such as HR and payroll systems. Terms were not disclosed. (CB Insights)
• Bench Talent Cloud raises growth funding. The San Diego startup specializes in creating and managing tech-enabled communities for tech talent. Terms were not disclosed. (CB Insights)
• SER gets investment from TA Associates. The Bonn, Germany-based startup offers intelligent content automation and enterprise content management. Terms were not disclosed. (FinSMEs)
• Sanctuary AI gets Series A investment from Accenture Ventures. The Vancouver, Canada, BC-based startup develops humanoid general-purpose robots. Terms were not disclosed. (FinSMEs)
• LMS365 acquires Valuebeat. The AI-powered workplace learning, engagement, and performance platform built into Microsoft 365 and Teams announced its acquisition of the startup that believes company culture is the key to unlocking a business’ full potential. (Training Industry)

Gympass rebrands as Wellhub

A great brand move that is a better reflection of the transformation from a D2C fitness solution to one that makes every company a wellness company. Congrats to CMO Ryan Bonnici on the achievement!

Industry News

• Lightcast and UKG announce strategic partnership to accelerate the transformation of skills development and workforce planning through artificial intelligence (AI). (Press Release)
• Big Tech has a big cash problem: They have a lot of cash to put to work at a time when they are in regulators' crosshairs. (Wall Street Journal)
• What researchers discovered when they sent 80,000 fake résumés to U.S. jobs. Hint: It was bad. (The New York Times)
• With Affinity acquisition, Canva should be able to compete better with Adobe’s creative tools. (TechCrunch)
• ManpowerGroup research: 3 out of 4 employers worldwide struggling to find skilled talent. (HCAMag)
• DailyPay research: Majority of Gen Z and Millennial hourly workers say on-demand pay would help them avoid late fees. (Press Release)
• Earned-Wage Access gets a huge regulatory win in Wisconsin (h/t DailyPay CEO Kevin Coop). (LinkedIn)
• Wave, a leading one-stop-shop for over 300,000 small businesses, will soon be using Check to power its payroll offering. (Press Release)
• Indeed announces AI-powered work experience writer and support for multiple resumes. (TechCrunch)
• Fosway Group releases latest Digital Learning 9-Grid. (Fosway Group)
• Rockstar learning leader Karie Willyerd joins Skillable as CLO in residence and advisor. (Press Release)
• Guild appoints Bijal Shah as CEO. (Press Release)
• Workday welcomes new Chief Communications Officer Gina Sheibley, formerly with Salesforce and Qualtrics. (LinkedIn)
• Andela appoints Kishore Rachapudi as Chief Revenue Officer. (Press Release)
• Texthelp and N2Y join forces to make education and the workplace more inclusive. (Press Release)
• eduMe completes Workday-certified integration. (Training Industry)

Around The Shop

Stuff we’re finding interesting right now at The Starr Conspiracy.

• People who work from home are increasingly reporting foot pain. Often, it’s because they're walking around barefoot. (TIME)
• Want to know if AI will take your job? One reporter tried using it to replace himself. (Wall Street Journal)
• Glassdoor wants to know your real name. Not everyone is cool with that. (WIRED)
• Harvard research: Gamification can boost employee engagement. (HBR)

That’s it for this week!

Everybody love everybody,

Steve

#worktech #hrtech #vcfunding #privateequity #enterprisesoftware

About The Starr Conspiracy

The Starr Conspiracy is an Experience Agency for enterprise technology companies that are shaping the way people work. Our passion is creating defining moments to transform your business across the Customer Experience spectrum — Brand, Marketing, Sales, Product, and Customer Success.