Irish Independent

As remote working becomes new normal Workvivo raises $16m in Series A funding

- Adrian Weckler

CORK-based employee communicat­ions firm Workvivo has raised $16m (€14.7m) in a Series A round of funding from the US venture capital giant Tiger Global with participat­ion from Dublin-headquarte­red Frontline Ventures.

It brings to $17.5m (€16.2m) the total amount of funding to the startup, founded by John Goulding and Joe Lennon.

Some of the company’s Irish clients include Bus Eireann, Woodies, University

College Cork and Cubic Telecom.

Globally, it counts Netgear, Telus Internatio­nal and A+E Networks as customers.

New York-based Tiger Global have previously invested in tech giants such as LinkedIn, Airbnb, Stripe, Uber and Square.

Workvivo describes its communicat­ion platform as a ‘central point’, integratin­g with other common platforms.

With a web, desktop and mobile app, it allows employees to read and post content to an activity feed. It also allows them to ‘like’, share and comment in the same way they do outside of the working environmen­t.

The platform allows them to create ‘community spaces’ and publish company articles and events.

“The move to remote working has been significan­tly accelerate­d by recent events,” said Mr Goulding, who is also the firm’s chief executive.

“It’s now more important than ever that employees are able to effectivel­y communicat­e and remain engaged with each other and with the business. Workvivo’s communicat­ion platform helps organisati­ons connect and engage with their employees regardless of location.”

Mr Goulding said that funding will allow the company to expand, offering Workvivo to many more companies globally and will accelerate its product developmen­t plans.

He said that Workvivo expects to exceed one million users on its platform by 2021.

The funding round was also supported by Enterprise Ireland.

The move comes amid warnings that funding deals for tech startups are drying up in Ireland.

Last week, the Irish Venture Capital Associatio­n warned that a generation of startups may be “wiped out” by the pandemic, with new data showing that seed funding for new firms has collapsed.

‘It’s now more important than ever for employees to remain engaged’

 ??  ?? Accelerati­on: John Goulding and Joe Lennon of Workvivo
Accelerati­on: John Goulding and Joe Lennon of Workvivo

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