Bonusly, a Boulder-based startup that encourages employees to reward each other, announced Monday it closed on a $9 million Series A round led by Access Venture Partners. Next Frontier Capital, Operator Partners and existing investor FirstMark Capital also participated.
With Bonusly, employees get a monthly allowance of “points” that they can give to each other as a reward for good work. Those points can then be redeemed by the recipient at any time as cash through PayPal or through credit at one of the company’s vendor partners like Amazon, Chipotle or Nike. Bonusly has also partnered with nonprofit organizations so employees can convert their points to charitable donations. In fact, according to TechCrunch, the company has donated more than $100,000 to the World Health Organization in the last six weeks through this method.
The idea, according to co-founder and CEO Raphael Crawford-Marks, is to foster a sense of community and boost morale within a company, giving employees a chance to feel valued by their bosses and coworkers outside of traditional methods like performance reviews and paychecks.
“People work for reasons other than a paycheck, Crawford-Marks told Built In after closing on a $1.5 million seed round last year. “Companies need to take the complexities of human psychology into account when they attract and retain the best talent.”
Founded in 2013, Bonusly has accumulated about 1,700 customers. As many of these companies have transferred to remote work in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, Crawford-Marks says the company has ramped up its efforts to help them promote better “communication, collaboration and team cohesion.”
This Series A brings Bonusly’s total funding raised to nearly $14 million according to Crunchbase data. The company said in an email that it plans to make 30 to 40 new hires this year, including leaders for its finance and sales teams as well as additional senior software engineers.
“Raising money is not a marker of success in itself. What matters is how we invest that money to better serve our customers and equip them to bring out the best in their people,” Crawford-Marks said in a statement. “There will always be a need to build strong, connected teams, and Bonusly is excited to partner with companies and leaders around the world to improve communication, collaboration, morale, and team cohesiveness.”
