BetterUp Raises $103 Million to Humanize Work | BetterUp

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — June 12, 2019 — BetterUp, the company that pioneered mobile coaching to help all workers live their lives with more clarity, purpose and passion, today announced its Series C—$103 million in growth financing. BetterUp helps employees flourish via one-to-one coaching, available on demand 24/7, to improve leadership skills like resilience, growth mindset, creativity and collaboration, and drive new ways of leading and a new level of performance. By concentrating on the whole person and enabling each worker to be a little bit better, BetterUp transforms entire organizations from the inside out.

The funding—believed to be the largest ever in the burgeoning field of tech-enabled employee coaching, behavior change and wellness—underscores faith in BetterUp, which was first to market in this space and which is now  rapidly being deployed by leading global, multinational organizations, including Airbnb, Equinix, Instacart, Logitech, Mars, Symantec and Workday. BetterUp tripled growth in 2018 for the second consecutive year, and now has more than 100 enterprise customers.

The round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners with participation from Threshold Ventures (formerly DFJ Venture), Freestyle Capital, Crosslink Capital, Tenaya Capital and Silicon Valley Bank.

“We are proud to be enabling innovative companies who recognize that their biggest asset—their people—deserve an elevated employee experience that speaks to who they are as whole persons, not just employees,” says Alexi Robichaux, BetterUp CEO and co-founder. “By combining human expertise, the latest advances in scientific research, and digital technologies including AI and machine learning we’re delivering unprecedented levels of personalized learning at scale. We’re transforming people and workplaces in the only way that’s sustainable—bottoms-up—one person at a time.”

The financing, which brings the company’s total raised to over $142 million, will fuel BetterUp’s international expansion, the hiring of new employees and coaches, and development of new products and services that enable companies to intelligently scale personalized human development and support.

“BetterUp’s platform is designed to help people see and reach their potential,” says Adam Grant, renowned organizational psychologist, best-selling author and member of BetterUp’s Science Board. “People are the heart of every workplace, and making them better makes the organization better.”

More than $200 billion is spent annually on learning and development, but only 10% of it is effective because so much of the learning is quickly forgotten or doesn’t transfer to the workplace. With BetterUp’s one-to-one personalized coaching, provided in the flow of work, clients have seen results including a 26% jump in job performance, a 25% increase in focus and a 15% reduction in burnout. Employee intent to stay with one organization increased by over 63% with BetterUp coaching.

“BetterUp is the one company fundamentally investing in the most important part of the future of work—human beings. No other company drives measurable outcomes that change lives and workplaces,” says Will Kohler of Lightspeed Ventures, which also led BetterUp’s Series B round. “Its focus on driving change via human coaching—empowered and informed by technological tools—is the winning recipe for true, personalized human capital transformation and persistent behavior change.”

Along with its core coaching product, BetterUp last year expanded its platform to offer on-demand coaching and an extended network of experts to address such issues as public speaking, sleep and nutrition. BetterUp is also funding $20 million in evidence-based behavioral research as part of its commitment to the whole person, encompassing a holistic and aspirational vision for human flourishing in every domain of life.