Cork-based Talivest raises $1m for new tool to gauge staff wellbeing levels

Employee analytics software company Talivest has raised $1 million (€870,000) in a new funding round led by former Voxpro founders Dan and Linda Kiely.

The company, whose other backers include CPL founder Anne Heraty, Google Ireland managing director Ronan Harris and PCH chief executive Liam Casey, is to use the financing to accelerate the launch of its new employee energy tool.

The solution helps manage employees’ wellbeing and can be used to predict engagement levels and burnout risks. Talivest aims to create a number of new roles across sales, customer success, marketing and technology to bolster platform development and growth.

"Over the past two years, and more specifically the past two months, we have seen the most dramatic shift in the labour market in a century. Consequently, organisations need to move on from outdated employee engagement scores and focus on employee energy," said Laura Belyea, who co-founded the company with Jayne Ronayne and serves as its chief operating officer.

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“Organisations need a tool to understand the root cause of issues such as discontentment, in order to move the dial, and this is exactly what we’re building into our employee experience platform,” she added.

Backers

Talivest, which has its headquarters in Cork, was formerly known as KonnectAgain, Among its other backers are renewables entrepreneur Michael Murnane; Blue Bottle Coffee founder Bryan Meehan; Classpass investor Charlie Songhurst; Luxor Capital; and philanthropist Nicolas Berggruen.

In tandem with the new financing, tech veteran Barry Doyle, who is a partner in the Kielys' investment vehicle MASV, is to become an adviser to Talivest. He was formerly chief finance officer at Storyful when it was acquired by News Corp, and held the same role at Ray Nolan's Sellco.

MASV has invested in a number of start-ups since the Kielys departed from Voxpro, the business process outsourcing company they sold to Canadian call centre giant Telus in a $150 million deal. These include providing backing for Snack Farm; Cork-based co-working hub Republic of Work; alternative legal solutions company Johnson Hana; and remote-work platform Abadoo.

More recently, Mr Kiely has co-founded Vudini, a start-up that helps individuals and companies to appear more prominently on YouTube. The company raised more than €2 million in funding last month.