An employee communications platform headquartered in Switzerland is looking to expand its UK business following a huge funding round.
Beekeeper currently has around 20 customers in the UK including Heathrow Airport, Dufry UK and Exclusive Hotels.
Focused on non-desk workforces, its $45 million Series B 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.
Beekeeper currently doesn’t have a UK office, but has dedicated business partners and business development representatives it collaborates with on these shores as well as Europe-based customer success managers supporting its UK customers.
A spokesperson told BusinessCloud: “The next year will see Beekeeper heavily focus on expanding across the UK, building on its experience working with well-known companies including Heathrow Airport and Exclusive Hotels.
“The goal is to considerably increase the current customers number in the UK as we plan to double the size of our entire business.”
It claims that companies on the platform have realised significant savings and efficiencies on labour within months of activation of its solution, which integrates multiple channels in one secure hub that is accessible by employers and employees from both desktop and mobile devices.
There are said to be more than 1.7 billion non-desk workers globally unconnected or poorly connected by a patchwork of consumer and enterprise applications.
“Given the pace of workplace digitisation 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,” said Beekeeper co-founder and CEO Dr. Cristian Grossmann.
“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 organisations streamline business processes and collaboration with their frontline employees across shifts, locations, and languages.”
Beekeeper has experienced tremendous growth in the last year in many verticals including hospitality, manufacturing, and retail.