SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Rallyteam, a startup delivering an intelligent talent development platform, today announced an $8.6 million Series A round of financing co-led by Norwest Venture Partners and Storm Ventures. Additional investors include Cornerstone OnDemand and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. The new investment will enable Rallyteam to accelerate growth for its operations and platform.
Employee turnover has been on the rise in the U.S. for the last several years, curbing growth and cutting profits. One in three employees plan to leave their current role within the next 12 months[1], and the cost of replacing a high-level or highly specialized employee is 400 percent of that person’s annual salary. Rallyteam’s talent development platform addresses turnover and promotes retention by helping companies identify new ways to empower their employees and keep them engaged.
The platform enables companies to better understand and utilize their employees by auto-matching them to relevant jobs, projects, tasks and people, thus allowing organizations to create a more agile and engaged workforce. Helping organizations retain talented employees through skill and goal-based work, Rallyteam’s solution is delivering the meaningful opportunities today’s workforce is seeking.
“Cultivating the most valuable asset in the workplace— your people—is critical for businesses of any size to promote talent development and growth,” said Sean Jacobsohn, partner at Norwest Venture Partners. “Rallyteam offers an intelligent platform that provides smart solutions and drives essential results to companies and their employees.”
The Rallyteam Marketplace provides employers with a scalable solution to develop and engage their employees by matching them to opportunities based on key variables including interests, skills, expertise, location, and availability. Unlike typical career websites, Rallyteam’s Marketplace provides each employee with a curated list of “Suggested Opportunities” based on their assessed fit (match percentage) and “Opportunities to Develop” based on their career development preferences.
“Turnover is one of the greatest challenges facing employers today, and the lack of internal opportunities for growth and development is a major contributor,” says David Somers, Rallyteam CEO and co-founder. “Cutting-edge organizations understand the value of talented employees and are beginning to put as much effort into developing those employees as they put into recruiting them.”
The company also secured acceptance into Microsoft’s and Orange Silicon Valley’s accelerator programs. Accelerator “Orange Fab” connects startups with a global network of corporations, offering participating startups access to mentor network and active engagement with corporations through dedicated business development resources. The Microsoft Accelerator supports the tech startup community at every stage of their journey, and is connected with 647 companies worldwide, with $3 billion raised by alumni overall and startups raising $5.2 million on average in follow-on funding. The company continues to promote talent development and build momentum with platform users like eBay.
eBay Reports 30 Percent Increase In Employee Engagement after Rallyteam Rollout
E-commerce leader eBay deployed Rallyteam to four business units in North America and Europe as part of an initiative to empower employees to take control of their own career development. The Rallyteam platform connects employees with opportunities to develop new skills and demonstrate competence in areas outside the scope of their core responsibilities. By participating in projects across business units, employees gain endorsements and feedback that can be used to support performance reviews while expanding their professional networks within eBay.
“As the world’s biggest marketplace, eBay recognizes the power of connecting buyers and sellers around the globe,” says Christine Landon, eBay’s Senior Director of Talent and Career Development, Coaching and Consulting. “Our partnership with Rallyteam is enabling us to create an internal talent market across the globe. Our ‘Experience Market’ enables our project leads to find the talent they need, while enabling our employees to use and further develop their skills, which is a win for them and a win for eBay.”
The first phase of eBay’s Rallyteam rollout was met with enthusiastic leadership support, high user adoption and 30 percent greater employee engagement than previously deployed solutions. Of users surveyed, 98 percent reported that they would recommend program participation to a colleague. eBay is moving forward with plans to deploy Rallyteam company-wide.
About Rallyteam
Rallyteam is an internal mobility platform that enables companies to better understand and utilize their most valuable assets—their people. Rallyteam helps organizations develop, engage, and retain top talent by offering unlimited growth and experiential learning opportunities, fostering collaboration and continuous feedback, and rewarding top performers with new opportunities and recognition. The company is based in San Francisco, CA. CEO and co-founder David Somers previously served as VP, Global Alliances and Strategic Initiatives for Cornerstone OnDemand.
About Norwest Venture Partners
Norwest is a leading Silicon Valley based venture capital and growth equity investment firm managing more than $6 billion in capital. Since our inception, we have invested in more than 600 companies. The firm invests in early to late stage companies across a wide range of sectors with a focus on consumer, enterprise, and healthcare. We offer a deep network of connections, operating experience, and a wide range of impactful services to help CEOs and founders advance on their journey. Norwest has offices in Palo Alto and San Francisco, with subsidiaries in India and Israel. For more information, please visit http://www.nvp.com. Follow Norwest on Twitter @NorwestVP.
About Storm Ventures
Storm Ventures is a silicon valley based venture capital firm that is focused on building enterprise leaders. Over its 17 year history, Storm has partnered with entrepreneurs on the startup journey to address some of the most challenging problems that businesses face across sectors such as SaaS (Marketo/IPO, Engagio, Guidespark, Talkdesk, EchoSign/Adobe), Infrastructure (Airespace/Cisco, AtScale, MetaCloud/Cisco, SwiftStack), Security (Digital Shadows, MobileIron/IPO, SourceClear, TruSTAR), and Digital Health (Lexigram and CareSkore). The firm has over 800m in assets under management and offers deep expertise and a network to help startups scale, especially on the Go To Market strategy.
[1] https://www.mercer.com/our-thinking/career/global-talent-hr-trends.html