Achievers raises $24.5M for employee rewards platform

Achievers has raised $24.5 million for its business of motivating employees by inspiring them with rewards and social network.

That seems like something every company should do. But Achievers gives them a helping hand, and the company has grown 105 percent in monthly revenue over the last 12 months.

The company has programs such as social recognition, which allows employees to share their work accomplishments on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. Employees can forward their recognitions via email and can accumulate points that they can cash in for real-world rewards such as TVs or vacations. Achievers’ clients include Marriott, Microsoft and 3M.

Sequoia Capital led the funding, which was the company’s third institional round. Other investors included JLA Ventures, GrandBanks Capital, and the Ontario Venture Capital Fund (managed by NorthLeaf Capital). Total funding to date is $38 million.

Achievers has 150 employees and recently moved its headquarters from Toronto to San Francisco, where it hopes to hire 40 more people.

Alfred Lin, a partner at Sequoia, said employee rewards and recognition is a $48 billion industry that is fragmented and largely handled manually. Achievers, on the other hand, has turned the process into a software-as-a-service. Achievers is available in multiple languages with round-the-clock support. It targets firms with 500 employees and up.

Achievers was founded as I Love Rewards in 2002. Rivals include internal recognition programs as well as Globoforce and Rypple. Founder and chief executive Razor Suleman has been starting businesses since he was 15 years old.

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