SAN FRANCISCO – DECEMBER 04, 2018
15Five, a trailblazer in the continuous performance management category, today announced the close of an $8.2 million Series A round led by Chicago and Salt Lake City-based Origin Ventures, with participation from New Ground Ventures, Chaifetz Group, Jason Calacanis’s LAUNCH Fund, and leading SaaS investor Matrix Partners, who co-led the startup’s seed funding. This latest round of financing brings 15Five’s total capital raised to $11.9 million.
15Five will use the latest investment to support its global growth initiatives, including accelerating product innovation and scaling the sales, marketing and product teams. The company plans to grow its employee headcount by more than 100 percent in the coming year, expanding from 34 employees at the start of 2018 to more than 100 in 2019.
“The latest round will advance our mission to address the changing world of work,” said David Hassell, co-founder and CEO of 15Five. “This is an opportunity to continue building on what many of the world’s leading companies have already discovered, which is that empowering employees with solutions like 15Five is foundational to driving long-term growth.”
“That’s why Spotify, Indeed, HubSpot and TechStyle have embraced 15Five,” adds Hassell. “The support of customers like these has helped us become the #1 product in both the Employee Engagement and Performance Management categories on G2 Crowd.”
Reviewers on sites like G2 Crowd have praised the 15Five continuous performance management suite for being easy to set-up, intuitive and highly customizable. Key features include a weekly check-in function, employee recognition, an Objectives and Key Results tracking system, and 360˚ reviews. Companies can seamlessly integrate the platform with critical business applications like Slack, BambooHR, Namely, Okta and OneLogin.
“There has never been a bigger opportunity for companies to boost the performance of their employees,” said Hassell. “Companies are still using the annual review – an assessment of performance that has been a standard since 1940 – to deliver employee feedback. But, today’s workforce demands continuous feedback. Companies that aren’t using solutions like 15Five to provide constant feedback are going to see an approximate 400 percent reduction in employee motivation and nearly a 200 percent reduction in employee productivity. This is why it’s never been more important for companies to invest in continuous performance management.”
15Five Co-Founder and Chief Culture Officer Shane Metcalf agrees, “Millennials have been transforming the workplace over the last decade, demanding more feedback and career development opportunities. But, performance management hasn’t maintained pace with the rate of change. 15Five resonates so strongly with businesses worldwide because it helps them foster cultures that respond to evolving employee needs.”
In addition to using the funds to grow the team, 15Five plans to use the capital to add new integrations to the platform, including more in-depth analytics. Another focus will be on adding features that enable employees to better track career progression, which will ultimately allow for greater self-discovery to power long-term professional growth. 15Five will also be offering trainings in their Best-Self Management methodology in 2019, which promises to positively transform the performance management space.
“Origin Ventures is excited to be investing in 15Five, the market leader in continuous performance feedback. The company’s product aligns perfectly with the expectations of today’s workforce, leading to high employee satisfaction and reduced attrition,” said Brent Hill, Partner, Origin Ventures, who will be joining 15Five’s board of directors. “We couldn’t be more excited about investing in a product that’s helping drive the transformation of the global workforce now and well into the future.”
To learn more about 15Five, please visit: https://www.15five.com/