Skip to main content

Recruiting technology company Humanly.io raises $4.2 million in seed funding round

A technology company that uses artificial intelligence in recruiting job candidates has raised $4.2 million, including funding from two local venture capital firms.

Humanly.io is headquartered in Seattle and Sacramento, and it raised the recent seed fund from investors including Moneta Ventures of Folsom and Growth Factory Capital in Rocklin.

“We will use the money to scale up the team and the product,” co-founder and Chief Operating Officer Andrew Gardner told the Business Journal.

The company currently has 10 employees, most of whom work remotely, though the company has small offices in Seattle and Sacramento.

The funding this week was led by Zeal Capital Partners in Washington, D.C., and also included Spark Growth Ventures, Basecamp Fund and Y Combinator.

According to venture capital tracking website Crunchbase, Humanly.io has raised a total of $5.3 million since its launch in 2019.

Humanly.io uses artificial intelligence software to automate screening and scheduling of hiring for companies and recruiters. It also has a suite of software that helps recruiters and hiring managers be more efficient during job candidate interviews and virtual interviews over teleconferencing.

Read More…

Paradox’s New Experience Assistant Named HR Executive Top Product of 2021

Paradox, the conversational recruiting software company helping global brands like Unilever and McDonald’s streamline the hiring process through automation with a human touch, announced its newest product, Experience Assistant, earned the top honor in HR Executive annual best HR technology solutions awards.

Experience Assistant was selected because it fundamentally transforms how candidates interact with a company — instantly turning any existing career site into a dynamic content-driven and hyper-personalized interaction on both mobile and desktop devices. While Paradox’s flagship recruiting assistant, Olivia, has built a reputation for helping global recruiting teams get work done, Experience Assistant focuses on the candidate.

“For years, the holy grail of candidate experience has been true 1:1 personalization at scale, but it’s been elusive at best,” said Aaron Matos, Paradox Founder and CEO. “We have a vision for the next-generation of consumer-grade recruiting software — and Experience Assistant builds on that vision. We don’t believe employers should be forced to overhaul their career site to create unique, dynamic experiences. Now, they don’t have to.”

Each year, HR Executive top product award recognizes the most innovative new technology solutions that are helping business leaders meet the critical HR needs of their organizations. The staff of HR Executive selects the Top HR Products each year after performing an extensive evaluation of the submissions with help from a panel of industry experts.

Read More…

Amberdata Raises $15M Series A Led by Citi

Amberdata, the digital asset data company, announced it has raised $15 Million Series A led by Citi. Franklin Templeton, Galaxy Digital, Rovida Kruptos Assets, and executives at GoldenTree Asset Management also participated in the capital raise. They are joined by HWVP who previously led Amberdata’s Series Seed.

Amberdata will use the funds to double R&D headcount and expand go-to-market both in the United States and internationally.

Amberdata delivers comprehensive data and insights into blockchain networks, crypto markets, and decentralized finance. Founded in 2017, Amberdata analyzes over 8 million blockchain network transactions and more than $500 Billion in trading activities daily. The platform powers financial institutions with data for research, trading, risk, analytics, reporting, and compliance.  It serves as a critical piece of infrastructure for investors entering the asset class and participating in digital asset markets.  Institutional customers can easily integrate real-time and historical data and metrics via FIX, REST, WebSockets, and RPC and gain access to reference rates, Indexes, and analytics.

“Partnering with the exceptional group of strategic investors gives us unprecedented insights into institutions’ roadmap and challenges,” said Shawn Douglass, CEO at Amberdata. “Blockchain technology enables entirely new financial products to be created and offered at a much lower cost with global market reach. We see growing institutional interest and demand in crypto assets. Our customer list and investors are a stamp of approval for the value we are creating for institutions.”

Read More…

SAP.iO Foundry Singapore Kicks-Off “Future of Work” Startup Program

September 14, 2021 SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) launched a virtual startup program focusing on human resources (HR) technology and the future of work solutions at SAP.iO Foundry Singapore in collaboration with SAP SuccessFactors. The six international startups have been selected by a jury of SAP experts and partners to join the program.

Over the next 13 weeks, SAP will accelerate these early-stage startups that are focused on recruiting, talent and team management, and wellbeing solutions. The startups will have access to curated mentorship from SAP executives, exposure to SAP® technology and application programming interfaces (APIs), and opportunities to collaborate with SAP customers around the world. The program will conclude with the SAP.iO Cohort Demo Day in December 2021.

“We are operating at a time where every industry has been disrupted, and almost every organization is undergoing some kind of transformation. People are at the core of this transformation and the heartbeat of business. We see a continuing trend of leaders looking for innovative ways to empower people with the information and capabilities they need to succeed in a digitized world,” said Aaron Green, Head of SuccessFactors, SAP Asia Pacific & Japan. “By partnering with SAP, these startups are joining an innovative ecosystem, and we look forward to working together to accelerate digital transformation for our customers in the world of Human Experience Management.”

The following startups are participating in the SAP.iO Foundry Singapore program:

  • Accredify empowers organizations to create, issue, and verify digital credentials like educational certificates and employee records. Employers and third-party verifiers can check if credentials are certified true copies without time consuming manual cross-referencing.
  • Boldly’s platform enables both coaching and mentoring in one place. With the largest global database of professional coaches, Boldly ensures both coaching and mentoring culture can scale with exceptional operations, coaching and mentoring resources.
  • Tagvance’s personnel and asset tracking solution provides real time and high precision location tracking of people and assets in industrial spaces for improved safety and productivity.
  • Talent Games helps companies find and assess top millennial talent using recruitment games. Talent Games’ gamified candidate assessments are scientifically proven to accurately evaluate each candidate’s personality, cognitive ability, aptitude and behavior, all while they play the game.
  • Wagely empowers companies to provide employees with affordable and sustainable financial services, including access to earned wage access (EWA). This allows employees to access already earned but unpaid wages to reduce financial stress and boost their productivity, motivation and retention.
  • Springday is a B2B software-as-a-service platform with wellness programs, assessment tools and content to enable employees to be happier and healthier. 

About SAP.iO
SAP.iO delivers new partnerships and products for SAP by accelerating and scaling startup innovation as well as incubating employee ventures. SAP.iO brings together innovators from every region, industry, and line of business to transform how businesses run. Since 2017, SAP.iO has helped 300+ external startups and internal ventures accelerate their growth while enabling thousands of SAP customers to access innovation. For more information, visit https://sap.io/.

SAP.iO Foundry Munich Introduces New Mobility Startup Program with MHP Management- und IT-Beratung GmbH

September 10, 2021 — SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) launched a startup program focused on new mobility at SAP.iO Foundry Munich in collaboration with MHP Management- und IT-Beratung GmbH to address customer objectives and challenges in the mobility sector. Ten startups across the globe were selected by a panel of SAP experts, partners, customers, and investment funds to participate. 

Within this program, the B2B software startups will work closely with customers and MHP to unlock joint innovation efforts. The cohort will address multiple strategic areas throughout the equity-free program – from connectivity in transport and fleet management to battery charging and autonomous driving. 

“For sustainable, emission-free mobility, we need the innovative power of startups and the resources and opportunities of large corporates. SAP.iO Foundry Munich combines both in their new mobility program, and we at MHP are pleased to be able to actively support and promote the startups to make a joint contribution to a better future.” said Marcus Wieland, partner and strategic lead for future mobility at MHP. 

SAP.iO’s growing network of top-tier startup programs has paved the way for entrepreneurs to extend SAP’s portfolio with innovative software solutions for SAP customers. Throughout the 12-week program, the startups will gain valuable mentorship from SAP executives, leading industry experts, as well as access to SAP® technology, application programming interfaces (APIs), and opportunities to collaborate with SAP customers.  

The following startups were selected to participate in the new mobility program with SAP.iO Foundry Munich:   

  • 4.screen | 4.screen is building the first marketplace for in-car branded placements to connect businesses with drivers. They help local businesses reach customers within their car navigation screens when searching for points of interest and proactively recommend stops.
  • adiutaByte | adiutaByte offers flexible and scalable optimization algorithms through an easy-to-use and customizable web front-end for automated scheduling processes via software-as-a-service.
  • BlueSpace | BlueSpace.ai is an autonomous vehicle (AV) software company that leverages patented software with 4D sensors, proprietary mathematical formulas, high-quality state estimation, and optimized software implementation to calculate and process the full motion of objects in real time.
  • BOX ID Systems | BOX ID connects logistic transport assets with long-living IoT sensors. BOX ID offers greater precision of physical asset flows while providing insights into analytics and automation for stock levels, transports, pick-ups, and more.
  • ChargeX | ChargeX offers affordable and scalable charging infrastructure. With a simple and clear dashboard, customers can interact with the chargers and report on the charging processes. The all-in-one package makes charging infrastructure simple, scalable and easy to operate.
  • Compredict | Compredict allows fleet operators and vehicle manufacturers to gain deeper insight into how vehicles are being used. The solution provides data for different stakeholders to reduce CO2 emissions over the whole product lifecycle: from right-sized components, efficient vehicle testing, product durability all the way through to optimized maintenance and fleet operation.
  • Eccocar | Eccocar is a platform to launch, operate and scale digital mobility services, designed with rent-a-cars, dealers and fleet managers around the world.
  • gridX | gridX offers a platform for all decentralized energy resources from the PV system to the charging station. This enables customers to operate their charging infrastructure more efficiently, use more self-generated energy and develop their own energy applications.
  • Hovering Solutions | Hovering Solutions develops drones capable of flying autonomously and replacing the need for human intervention within indoor/outdoor environments, beneficial for carrying out 3D mappings of underground, closed, or confined areas.
  • Motion2AI | Motion2AI offers AI platforms for warehouse mobility fleets like forklifts, carts and robots by providing services of safety, monitoring, optimization, and autonomy.

About SAP.iO 
SAP.iO delivers new partnerships and products for SAP by accelerating and scaling startup innovation as well as incubating employee ventures. SAP.iO brings together innovators from every region, industry, and line of business to transform how businesses run. Since 2017, SAP.iO has helped 300+ external startups and internal ventures accelerate their growth while enabling thousands of SAP customers to access innovation. For more information, visit https://sap.io/  

Four SAP.iO Startups Named to Inc 5000 List in 2021

SAP.iO is proud to announce that four startups in our portfolio were named to Inc. 5000 Fastest-Growing Private Companies in America list for 2021.

BigID (Backed by SAP.iO Fund) was recognized for 14,421% 3-Year Growth. Their solution helps organizations discover, manage, protect, and get more value from their personal data and is available on the SAP Store.

Paradox (Accelerated by SAP.iO Foundry San Francisco) was recognized for 1,922% 3-Year Growth. Their conversational AI software helps companies automate human resources tasks and is available on the SAP Store.

meQuilibrium (Accelerated by SAP.iO Foundry New York) was recognized for 216% 3-Year Growth. Their solution helps businesses build workforce well-being and potential with predictive analytics, biometrics and neuroscience and is available on the SAP Store.

Jebbit (SAP.iO Foundry Tel Aviv) was recognized for 119% growth. and is available on the SAP Store.

Zippin Raises $30M to Drive Adoption of Frictionless Checkout

Checkout-free technology provider Zippin has closed a $30 million Series B funding round with participation from new and existing investors that include OurCrowd, Maven Ventures, Evolv Ventures and SAP. The new round brings Zippin’s total funding to more than $45 million.

This follows Zippin’s significant progress in recent months, including signing numerous new accounts, launching multiple new public checkout-free stores and further solidifying its leading technology within the future of retail, according to the company.

The company currently powers checkout-free stores across four continents in formats such as convenience stores, grocery stores, sports stadiums, hotels and residential buildings. With this funding round, Zippin expects to scale its checkout-free platform and power tens of thousands of stores by 2025.

“Zippin has seen increased demand and rapid adoption of checkout-free technology during the pandemic,” said Krishna Motukuri, Zippin co-founder and CEO. “Shoppers want contactless experiences everywhere they go. As retailers realize that frictionless checkout-free technology is also contactless by design, they see a great opportunity to kill two birds with one stone. With a checkout-free platform like Zippin, retailers can offer shoppers what they are looking for today, and future-proof their business, both at the same time.”

Read More…

MHP works together with SAP on cloud-based digital mobility solutions

MHP Management- und IT-Beratung GmbH (MHP) announced that it plans to expand its partnership with SAP. The aim is to accelerate the introduction of new digital mobility solutions based on SAP’s Industry Cloud. As part of the initiative, MHP and SAP are planning to explore co-innovations and joint go-to-market solutions based on SAP’s Industry Cloud for all aspects of mobility in a green field approach.

The intended partnership is intended to support customers in orienting themselves towards the megatrends connected mobility, autonomous driving, shared / serviced mobility and e-mobility – especially since these are still fundamentally changing and developing rapidly. In a first step, both partners want to discuss solutions for Fleet Management, Load Management, Battery Lifecycle Management and Mobility-as-a-Service. Co-innovation customers who can participate in the initiative include OEMs, utilities, and startups. MHP is therefore planning to support the SAP.iO Mobility Cohort in order to identify interesting start-ups in this technology and business area.

Read More…

Henkel : Idea Hackathon supports 100 early-stage female founders

The Henkel Xathon, an ideation hackathon for female founders, is taking place for the third time. The aim is to promote female entrepreneurs and talents in the technology industry, strengthen their business innovation and support them in building a relevant business network. The Xathon will take place in Berlin from November 12 to 14, 2021 as a hybrid event* in English. It is hosted by Henkel dx Ventures, Henkel’s platform for open innovation and collaboration, together with Global Digital Women.

 

One focus this year is on the rapidly accelerating D2C sector, influenced by changing consumer behaviors towards hyper-personalization across all channels.

 

At the Xathon, participants can take part in live workshops at four different locations in Berlin and digitally, watch keynotes, collaborate with top female experts, and further develop their business ideas. A total of 100 female talents will get the opportunity to participate in this year’s hackathon. Interested female founders can apply until October 10 at https://www.henkel.com/dx/xathon-2021. The main event partner of the Xathon 2021 is Global Digital Women. Further partners include SAP.iO and Microsoft.

 

Raising awareness for female empowerment

‘Diversity and gender equity are of strategic importance to us at Henkel. With the Xathon, we want to empower female entrepreneurship and support talented women in realizing their ideas and unfolding their full potential,’ says Sylvie Nicol, Chief Human Resources Officer at Henkel.

The Female Founder Monitor 2020 once again showed that targeted support for female founders is necessary: according to this, only 15.7 percent of all founders in Germany are female. Women entrepreneurs are particularly rare in the technology sector.

‘The figures show that the road to equality in the tech industry is still long. But there is much more than just figures: every year at our Xathon we see impressive and great ideas from female founders. For us, it is a privilege to experience and support this female entrepreneurial power in tech,’ says Michael Nilles, Chief Digital & Information Officer at Henkel. ‘I am truly convinced that innovation is built on diversity. That’s why we are very much looking forward to welcome 100 female founders and their early-stage business models.’

Read More…

Q&A: Andy Cockburn, CEO and Co-Founder, Mention Me

Andy Cockburn is CEO and Co-Founder of Mention Me, the Referral Engineering™  platform for growth-obsessed ecommerce brands. Since co-founding the business with Tim Boughton in 2013, he’s scaled it to employ more than 90 Referral Experts who have delivered more than 4 million referrals totalling £1bn in revenue for clients.

Prior to Mention Me, Andy was the UK Managing Director of HomeAway, the world’s largest market-place for holiday rentals (that floated on the NASDAQ for $3bn), and formerly the founder and CEO of Wigadoo, a technology start-up in the social payment space.

He has an MBA from INSEAD and MA from Cambridge University.

Read More…

Jasmine Crowe: What Can We Do To Tackle Food Waste And Hunger?

Social entrepreneur Jasmine Crowe has one mission: feed more, waste less. Her company Goodr is tackling food waste and getting food to those who need it most.

Jasmine Crowe is a social entrepreneur and the founder of Goodr, a startup based in Atlanta, Georgia that is leveraging technology to combat hunger and food waste.

Goodr collects surplus food from organizations like Turner Broadcasting Systems, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, and others, and redirects that food to nonprofits who distribute the food to people experiencing food insecurity. The company also works directly with cities and governments to purchase quality food for certain communities.

Crowe has collected and donated more than two million food items worldwide and fed more than 80,000 people through the Sunday Soul Homeless feeding initiative as well. The initiative started out as formal pop-up dinners for the homeless community of Atlanta.

Click here to listen to Part 3 of TED Radio Hour episode The Food Connection

Love checkout-free stores? This S.F. company just landed $30M to compete with Amazon Go’s technology

San Francisco startup Zippin, which develops technology powering checkout-free retail stores in the style of Amazon Go, has tripled its funding with a new $30 million round to scale its platform across “tens of thousands of stores” by 2025.

The Series B trough — courtesy of new and existing investors OurCrowd, Maven Venture, Evolv Ventures and SAP — brings its total backing to more than $45 million. The company said the new money will fund further development of maintenance functions and time-to-deployment.

Zippin’s technology facilitates entry and purchases for customers via a smartphone app and utilizes overhead cameras and shelf sensors to monitor goods.

It is used by retailer clients such as Lawson, Japan’s ubiquitous and third-largest convenience store chain, Aramark Corp., Compass Group, and Brazil’s largest retailer, Americanas. The platform was operational in 29 stores in the U.S. and around the world as of June, per its website, and CEO and co-founder Krishna Motukuri said demand has increased during the pandemic as retail stores sought to limit physical touch points.

Investors said in a statement they were impressed by the technology’s performance in high-traffic settings such as sports venues, which might see 500 customers in one hour.

“Zippin’s continued growth in such challenging environments is evidence of their superior technology,” said Jon Medved, CEO and founder of OurCrowd, a Jerusalem-based platform for investments in early-stage startups. “(It’s) also a competitive advantage, allowing their AI to train on some of the richest datasets provided by those challenging environments.”

Zippin opened its own check-out free store and showcase for its technology in SoMa in 2018 but shuttered it in June after opting not to renew its lease June 30, the company said in a blog post this summer.

Read More…

Cashierless checkout company Zippin raises $30M

The cashierless technology shift continues apace with today’s news that Zippin has raised $30 million in a series B round of funding. The San Francisco-based company is one of several players in the space to gain traction for a technology that seeks to not only make supermarket queues obsolete, but also generate big data insights for retailers.

Founded in 2018, Zippin leverages AI, cameras, and smart shelf sensors to enable shoppers to place items in their cart and walk out without waiting. The company opened its first checkout-free store in San Francisco back in 2018, and it has since entered into partnerships with the likes of Aramark, Sberbank, and the Sacramento Kings’ Golden 1 Center to power cashierless stores globally.

Read More…

SAP Startup Spotlight: The Mom Project

SAP invests in a lot of promising startups, and it’s sometimes hard to keep track of all of them. E-3 Magazine has selected the most interesting companies to showcase in our SAP Startup Spotlight Series. In this article, we will take a look at The Mom Project.

The Mom Project is the leader in helping businesses attract and retain female talent. With a community of more than 500,000 talented professionals connecting to over 2,000 companies, the company is committed to building a better workplace by harnessing the oft-overlooked intellectual workplace power of moms. In this interview with founder and CEO Allison Robinson, we will explore what makes The Mom Project unique and what’s next for the startup.

E-3 Magazine: How does The Mom Project work?

Allison Robinson: On top of offering $500,000 in grants as part of the Stronger Together Fund, The Mom Project created programs to support community members during their time of need as we all continue to navigate the coronavirus pandemic that sent ripple effects through every aspect of life beginning in March 2020. RALLY, for example, is a peer-to-peer mentorship program giving community members the space to solicit and offer advice. Resume Rev, a no-cost program that helps moms put their best foot forward, saw more than 15,000 resumes created and downloaded within the first 90 days. RISE, the inaugural initiative from our not-for-profit MomProject.org, launched in September 2020 to elevate 10,000 women of color over the next three years through a new upskilling model that puts moms first with scholarships to highly sought-after technology certificate programs including Google and Salesforce.

As of July 2021, there are more than 500 women enrolled in RISE via one of six certification tracks including Salesforce Administration, Google IT Support, and Google IT Automation with Python, which can be completed in as little as six weeks. In Q2 of 2021, RISE also introduced additional certification tracks such as Project Management, Data Analysis, and UX Design to further accelerate the supply of qualified leaders of color to meet demand for diverse talent by committed employers and partners of The Mom Project.

Read More…

SAP Startup Spotlight: Anthill

SAP invests in a lot of promising startups, and it’s sometimes hard to keep track of all of them. E-3 Magazine has selected the most interesting companies to showcase in our SAP Startup Spotlight Series. In this article, we will take a look at Anthill.

Muriel Clauson is the CEO and co-founder of Anthill. She is an active speaker, advisor, and thought leader on the future of work and artificial intelligence, and has authored scientific publications, was a scientific advisor for several governments and organizations around the world, and is an advisory board member for Humans for AI. Muriel is completing her doctorate in industrial-organizational psychology at the University of Georgia and conducted research at Emory University’s Goizueta School of Business and the Carl Vinson Institute of Government. In this interview, she explains how Anthill achieved its goals, how the company is connected to SAP, and what’s next for the startup.

E-3 Magazine: What exactly is Anthill?

Muriel Clauson: Anthill is the first talent management software for the deskless workforce, the 80 percent of the global workforce that does not work at a desk or computer. Anthill has broken the barriers to connecting with and understanding deskless employees in manufacturing, supply chain, and retail sectors, which exist in almost every large enterprise.

How does your solution work?

Clauson: Anthill is built upon a predictive relational model linking hundreds of assessments. Our backend technology allows us to ask employees a few questions on our mobile experience and learn a lot about them, because each answer helps us predict responses for the rest of the questions in our model. This is made possible by Anthill’s machine learning technology based on years of historical data, which is able to predict a wide range of people insights, like skills and turnover drivers, from limited responses and deliver a comprehensive map of the talent in an organization in an ongoing, rewarding way for employees. Anthill’s predictive model is complex but results in a seamless and fun user experience for workers. Anthill is available via app or SMS texting for employee users. Anthill’s dashboard capabilities focus on engagement and retention, internal mobility, and reskilling and development tools.

Read More…