Awardco, the employee rewards and recognition company that builds culture through value-driven recognition, announced today that it raised $65 million in Series A funding to pioneer a new future for rewards, recognition, and compensation. This is the largest Series A funding in HR SaaS history and boosts Awardco’s valuation to more than $900 million. The funding was led by General Catalyst and Ryan Smith, Qualtrics co-founder and Utah Jazz majority owner.
Awardco’s vision is reshaping an industry ripe for revolution in rewards and recognition while reflecting the growing trends of workplace disruption. “Employee recognition hasn’t changed in 100 years, and it isn’t working. With the Great Resignation impacting all areas of business, efforts to improve retention, engagement, and culture can no longer be a function of just HR. People are catching on to Awardco’s vision: to drive culture and build true employee loyalty by aligning efforts across all areas of business operations,” said Steve Sonnenberg, Awardco founder and CEO. “There are no shortcuts; addressing one area of the employee experience alone is not cutting it. Organizations must provide real value to their people. With this support from investors, Awardco is primed to completely change the way organizations reward and recognize their people.”
Since its inception in 2012, Awardco has been cash-flow positive while doubling its size and revenue annually. General Catalyst Managing Director Paul Kwan, who led the company’s investment, underscored this approach: “Awardco has scaled an impressive enterprise software business while bootstrapping it from the ground up. This is particularly rare in today’s marketplace where the prevailing mentality is often growth at any cost. Awardco’s DNA is reminiscent of Atlassian and Qualtrics, two other bootstrapped companies that I have had the privilege to work with.”
Operating under a model that emphasizes financial discipline and maximizing value for customers, this round of funding advances Awardco’s vision of the future of work by becoming the marketplace for the world’s loyalty and incentive spend. This vision was kickstarted with an Amazon Business partnership that allows Awardco to provide dollar-for-dollar value and near-limitless reward choice for customers. It also led to a software platform with best-in-class flexibility and all-in-one simplicity to meet all the incentive needs of the modern workplace, including recognition, milestones, and professional development.
Awardco is transforming employee rewards, recognition, and compensation while driving value-based behavior. Its network and platform have already amassed a client list of over 1,000 companies across 141 countries. Over 3 million employees from companies like L3Harris Technologies, Texas Roadhouse, Hertz, and Zillow received over 9 million recognitions using the Awardco platform in the past year. Organizations using Awardco to build culture during the workday generate positive reinforcement every 0.8 seconds.
In addition to General Catalyst, Ryan Smith, co-founder and executive chairman of Qualtrics, also backed Awardco. “Everything about the way we work has changed in the last two years — yet, the way we recognize, manage, and compensate people has remained unchanged for too many companies. It’s so impressive to see the way Awardco is helping companies adapt to the future of work. It also helps that Awardco is contributing to Utah’s vibrant tech community right here in Silicon Slopes.”
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