LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--BetterWorks, a company focused on helping small and medium-sized businesses recognize, reward and engage employees, has raised an $8 million Series A round from Redpoint Ventures. Funding will be used for hiring, expansion and continued development of the BetterWorks Perks platform, a simple online solution for employers to create, manage and measure employee perks programs. Total raise, including an early angel-backed round, brings investments to $10 million.
“We look for visionary entrepreneurs with bold ideas who use the Internet to disrupt the way people do business. We’re especially interested in companies who unite a disparate, fragmented market through technology,” said Satish Dharmaraj, general partner at Redpoint Ventures, and BetterWorks’ newest board member. “We invested in the BetterWorks team because of their big vision to build a technology-based solution for the country's six million small and medium-sized businesses who need perks programs to create better work environments. To date, the majority of solutions have been tailored to serve the interests of the enterprise and not the little guy.”
Employee perk programs are part of a company’s overall benefit offering and are meant to reward employees beyond salary. Common perks include education, gym memberships, catering, even car washes. For most businesses, developing and maintaining a customized employee perk program is a difficult and time-consuming process. Programs are manually operated, lack spending flexibility and insight into performance, plus force business owners to choose between vendors based on what’s-best-for-the-masses versus individual employee need.
“When you read about the best places to work, it’s never about salary, it’s about catered lunches, the daycare; it’s the cool stuff that matters. I’ve built employee perks program before and it’s impossible to manually build a program that makes everyone happy,” said Paige Craig, CEO and co-founder of BetterWorks. “I’d make a deal with one gym then hear about another gym an employee would prefer. As a small business owner I didn’t have the time or leverage to negotiate and manage dozens of vendor relationships. I realized there had to be a better solution and I wasn’t the only business owner who needed one.”
The BetterWorks Perks platform lets companies deliver real-time rewards through a simple Web interface. The platform connects employees with locally-based vendors offering discounts, such as gyms, yoga studios, salons, laundry services and more. Employees simply find what interests them and click through their profile page to place the order, either paying for the discounted service on their own, or deducting from an employer-provided perk budget.
Employer benefits and features include:
- Control over program: Ensures perks program is easily customized to marry employee interests with corporate goals;
- No-fuss billing: BetterWorks handles all the billing, subscriptions and payments to participating vendors;
- Measuring engagement: Monitor employee perks in real-time and gain insight into how often specific perks are being used, as well as reviews, comments and ratings from employees;
- Real-time analytics: Apply data based on employee-usage preferences to tailor perks program to fit the exact needs of the organization;
- Relevant vendor relationships: Access to pre-negotiated, discounted deals from a variety of local vendors and service providers;
- Payment flexibility: Options for services to be paid entirely by employees, entirely by employers or split between the two;
- Customizable allowance system: Enter in monthly “perk” budget per employee and easily reward on a spot basis.
Employee benefits and features:
- Freedom of choice: Employees select from a large menu of options to personalize the perks that matter most to them on an individual level;
- Customized profile page: Each employee has a personalized homepage and dashboard to manage their account, check balances and browse vendor options;
- Community features: Share service and provider suggestions with co-workers and easily create group orders or large orders for the office;
- Vendor and service discounts: Enjoy pre-negotiated deals at favorite local spots - no contracts required;
- Add favorites: Employees can request local and national vendors they’d like added to the BetterWorks Perks Platform;
- Easy checkout: Redeeming preferred perks is the same experience used with online shopping. Simply add the desired perk to the shopping cart, check-out and enjoy.
To learn more visit: http://www.betterworks.com
About BetterWorks
BetterWorks is a venture-backed company based in Los Angeles. Founded in 2010, the company mission is to help small and medium-sized businesses recognize, reward and retain employees by making work rewarding. The BetterWorks Perks Platform is a simple online solution for employers to create, manage and measure employee perks programs. Currently available in Los Angeles, the service is soon launching in San Francisco and New York. To sign up in minutes, visit: http://betterworks.com.