Cork company secures €15m investment to grow its operations

A Cork-based company has received millions in financial backing to help companies connect and engage with their workforce.

Tiger Global and Frontline Ventures have backed the workplace social network Workvivo, based in Cork, which is an employee communications platform that is used by clients such as Bus Éireann, Woodies, UCC and Trigon Hotels.

Founded three years ago by John Goulding and Joe Lennon and based in the Douglas area, Workvivo has today announced that it has raised €15 million in Series A funding.

Series A financing is the first round of funding that a startup receives from a venture capital firm. This round of funding follows on from a seed round late last year, bringing total funding to just over €16 million.

Tiger Global have previously invested in companies such as LinkedIn, Airbnb, Stripe, Uber and Square, while there is also support from Frontline Ventures and continued support from Enterprise Ireland.

Workvivo provides companies with an internal communications platform, which addresses many of the challenges being faced today as more companies turn to remote working, as well as the disengagement of an estimated 70% of employees globally.

Workvivo CEO and cofounder John Goulding said that the new funds will be used to grow further internationally: “The move to remote working has been significantly accelerated by recent events. 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 organizations connect and engage with their employees regardless of location, bringing the culture alive and aligning everybody with what the organization is trying to achieve.

“We have experienced tremendous success to date and this funding will allow us to expand our reach significantly to help organizations across the globe, while also allowing us to continue to invest strongly in ongoing product development,” he added.

This funding will now allow the company to expand, and Workvivo expects to break the one million user count on its platform by 2021.

Through web, desktop and a mobile app, Workvivo users can read and post content to an activity feed, and like, share and comment in the same way they do outside of the working environment.

They can also recognize others through shout-outs, link posts to company goals and values, create community spaces and publish company articles and events.