Beekeeper, creator of the first operational communications platform for non-desk workforces, announced the closing of a $45 million Series B financing. The round was co-led by Thayer Ventures and Swisscanto Invest by Zürcher Kantonalbank, with participation from prior investors including Atomico, Alpana Ventures, Edenred Capital Partners, Fyrfly, Hammer Team, investiere, HighSage Ventures, Keen Venture Partners, Samsung NEXT, Swiss Post, and Swisscom.
The funding comes as Beekeeper accelerates the adoption of its platform, designed for organizations with more than 50% of its workforce who are not otherwise connected on email or company devices – including Hyatt Hotels, Dollar General, Domino’s Pizza and SeaBoard Foods. Client companies on the platform have realized significant savings and efficiencies on labor within months of activation.
About the Platform
With more than 1.7 billion non-desk workers globally unconnected or poorly connected by a patchwork of consumer and enterprise applications, Beekeeper’s solution integrates multiple channels in one secure hub that is accessible by employers and employees from both desktop and mobile devices. The result: A more productive and efficient workforce.
Beekeeper’s Co-Founder and CEO, Dr. Cristian Grossmann, said, “Given the pace of workplace digitization and the unique demands of frontline workers, businesses have struggled to find a mobile-first platform built specifically to meet the complexities of a non-desk workforce. Consumer apps are not the answer, and knowledge-worker apps such as those offered by Slack and Microsoft don’t cover the needs of frontline workers. Beekeeper provides a purpose-built one-stop platform to help organizations streamline business processes and collaboration with their frontline employees across shifts, locations, and languages. We are grateful to Thayer Ventures, Swisscanto Invest and our other investors for fueling Beekeeper’s continued exponential growth – to benefit operational efficiencies, employees, and companies across the globe.”
Seizing the Global Market Opportunity
Beekeeper has experienced tremendous growth in the last year in many verticals including hospitality, manufacturing, and retail. The company plans to use the new funding to further expand its platform to bridge the gap between knowledge workers and their non-desk counterparts, and further expand its offering with new features and integrations.
As more than 80% of the world’s workers are non-desk employees, Beekeeper is eyeing a huge market opportunity for its solutions. As a part of Beekeeper’s roadmap, companies will be able to customize their experience through the rapidly growing Marketplace with additional apps and integrations with systems like Workday.
Christopher R. Hemmeter, Managing Director at Thayer Ventures, said, “Digital transformation of the enterprise has become mission-critical for suppliers, especially in the hospitality and travel ecosystem. Although the tendrils of this transformation have largely reached management and other desk-based workers, the non-desk worker has mostly been left behind. Closing the gap is more complicated than one might think given the fluid nature of the workforce, security challenges, legacy systems and need to mitigate complexity. Beekeeper has solved the problem and has deployed as the leading platform for non-desk-worker operational communications and engagement. In addition to the enterprise-grade quality of the technology, Beekeeper continues to achieve extraordinary adoption statistics which, at the end of the day, is the most important factor.”
While desktop tools get adoption rates of 15% among non-desk workers, the Beekeeper platform boasts an industry-leading 90% activation rate, creating a uniquely valuable enterprise tool that hosts the majority of day-to-day workflows for many of its customers.
Nils Granath, responsible for ICT investments at Swisscanto Private Equity Switzerland Growth I KmGK, said, “Today, over 75% of the global workforce rely on their smartphones to communicate with their colleagues, but there are few digital tools which cater to the needs of non-desk-workers. We were convinced by the global blue-chip customer base of Beekeeper and the huge upside potential in the non-desk worker segment. It is a great addition to our portfolio, which is focused on supporting fast growing tech companies together with global VC investors.”
About Beekeeper
Beekeeper is a digital workplace app where operational systems and communication channels live within one secure, intuitive platform. Beekeeper connects desk and non-desk employees across locations and departments in real-time via mobile or desktop and includes an intelligent dashboard to help companies improve internal communication and streamline business processes.
Beekeeper was founded in 2012 by Cristian Grossmann (Ph.D. in Engineering), Flavio Pfaffhauser (MSc in Computer Science), Daniel Sztutwojner (MSc in Mathematics) and Andreas Slotosch (M.A. in Business & Technology) four friends with a passion for connecting people through technology. Now with customers in more than 160 countries, the company completed a $5 Million Seed Round, an $8 million Series A financing, supplemented by a $13 million Series A extension round last year.
Website: www.beekeeper.com
Blog: www.blog.beekeeper.io
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