Beekeeper, a platform for companies to have interaction with frontline staff, has raised $50 million in a Sequence C spherical of funding.
Based out of Switzerland in 2011, Beekeeper targets the estimated 80% of the worldwide “deskless” workforce who don’t work from a hard and fast office-based location, spanning hospitality, retail, manufacturing, logistics, healthcare, amongst different industries.
Beekeeper’s platform constitutes instruments to help messaging, surveys, video and voice chats, FAQ chatbots, workflow automation (e.g. for onboarding new hires), shift scheduling, paperwork, kinds, and extra.
On prime of that, Beekeeper additionally packs analytics to serve managers with metrics round engagement.
Different notable gamers within the area embrace Connecteam, which not too long ago closed a $120 million spherical of funding, whereas the likes of WorkStep, WorkJam and Skedulo have additionally raised sizable sums of VC money lately.
Collectively, they’re all getting down to remedy the same drawback, vis-à-vis how finest to attach with the hundreds of thousands of staff not tethered to a desk, and who could solely sporadically have the ability to check-in on-line.
“Beekeeper helps corporations attain and join with frontline workers who don’t work at a desk, communicate dozens of languages, work with their fingers, and often don’t have firm electronic mail accounts,” CEO Cris Grossmann informed TechCrunch. “Our software program permits organizations to streamline nearly each facet of the frontline worker expertise — from automating paper-based processes to distributing shift schedules to digitizing necessary assets like worker handbooks.”
Beekeeper has amassed some big-name clients over its 10-plus years historical past, together with lodge large Hilton and meals company Cargill. And as with nearly each different expertise that guarantees to learn both distant or “important” frontline staff, Beekeeper has benefited from the pandemic’s influence on the worldwide workforce by way of spurring corporations to modernize how they liaise with their workforce.
“As the general public grew to become extra conscious of the essential function our frontline workforce performs in each facet of human life, they started dominating information protection and nationwide conversations,” Grossmann continued. “Firms shortly found that they couldn’t talk immediately or convey fast updates to their frontline groups. The usual top-down, word-of-mouth communication channels, classical or social intranets, and bulletin boards they relied on for many years failed. Many needed to implement new applied sciences to attach and empower their frontline staff — they usually wanted to do it quick.”
Path to retention
At its core, connecting and fascinating is admittedly all about retaining — countering the so-called “nice resignation” and the huge swathe of current unfilled jobs. Lowering friction and frustrations, and guaranteeing that considerations are addressed are pivotal to protecting frontline staff glad.
“Organizations that depend on frontline labor to make, promote, and distribute their merchandise are being compelled to deal with long-standing ache factors round pay, working situations, and the worker expertise for his or her frontline groups,” Grossmann stated. “Ahead-thinking organizations are taking motion to deal with frontline disconnect and excessive turnover in a holistic approach that solves it as soon as and for all.”
Before now, Beekeeper had raised round $81 million in financing, and with one other $50 million within the financial institution, the Zurich-based firm stated that it plans to double down on product improvement and construct on its latest progress which it stated has seen its income rise by 100% because the begin of the pandemic.
Beekeeper’s Sequence C spherical included investments from EGSB, Kreos Capital, Energize, Thayer, SwissCanto, Eager Ventures, Alpana and Verve Capital.