Workplace talent management platform SeenCulture has raised $1 million in a round backed by LaunchVic’s Alice Anderson Fund for female founders.
The software startup helps management make smarter, fairer and faster decisions around employee issues such as promotions, performance/pay reviews, and team design.
Founded in 2023 by psychologist Nikki Tugano, it currently serves more than 1,500 users and works with professional services firms and technology companies with customers such as Atlassian and Culture Amp.
Tugano describes it as “like the Moneyball for teams in organisations”, to help business leaders stabilise and optimise their existing workforce to cut the costs of employee turnover and recruitment, combining data science with behaviour science to recognise overlooked and underestimated talent.
“We’re so excited for what this capital will unlock, and have already invested into building our product development team,” she said.
“We can’t wait to show even more customers how we can shine a light on their untapped potential, and help them build a culture where everyone feels seen.”
This time last year, the Melbourne startup was part of the first cohort in the NSW government-backed Techstars accelerator in Sydney. SeenCulture then had an initial $120,000 in funding from a new angel investment syndicate created for the Techstars cohort, Cut Through Angels. Techstars boss Kirstin Hunter is among her backers along with NiceTo’s Preethi Mohan, cofounder of PressPlay Ventures, plus strategic angels investors from Culture Amp, Atlassian and Canva.
Among them is Atlassian technology leader Young Li said: “The SeenCulture platform gave us insights into the intricate and complex dynamics that fuel our high performance. Their platform has enabled us to uncover and understand complexities that were previously hidden, thereby leading to overall team efficiency and effectiveness.”
Victoria’s Alice Anderson Fund provides up to $300,000 in matched funding to female founders. This is the LaunchVic’s fund’s 36th investment in a women-led Victorian startup from the $10 million fund.
SeenCulture’s $1m round also saw backing from M8 Ventures, the early stage fund by Alan Jones and Emily Rich, and InterValley Ventures, which invests in Australian tech startups with a view to helping them expand into Japan and has also backed the likes of Myriota and Quintessence Labs.
“We were pleased to have the support of several M8 investors in backing SeenCulture with a pre-seed cheque. We’ve been impressed by Niki’s initiative, work ethic and customer-driven approach since the first time we met her,” he said.
“M8 Ventures has been a diverse fund manager from day one, committed to helping investors build faith in what the data already conclusively shows: that diverse teams outperform non-diverse teams.”
Also chipping in was the new Seed fund from Queensland-based Torus (formerly Palm Beach Ventures), founded by Cake Equity’s Jason Atkins and Kane Templeton. Torus has backed several women-led startups including Hex and GGWP Academy.
Trending
Daily startup news and insights, delivered to your inbox.