When asked what advice he would offer to earlier-stage startups, Elzinga reflects on some advice he was given himself. “And that goal is now the focus of the business over the next five to 10 years.” You’re a nice company, but … “That’s approximately 1% of the population,” Elzinga says. Now, however, the startup doesn’t measure impact in terms of dollars.Īnd the mission isn’t to make $100 million, it’s to improve the working lives of 100 million people. The theory was that if he could get tens of thousands of customers, spending tens of thousands of dollars each, that would equal $100 million in revenue. When he first started out, the founder had “the world’s most naive business plan”, he admits. “There are tens of thousands of companies out there that we want to be working with.” It may already be in 47 countries, but it’s “only” working with 2,500 companies, Elzinga says. This latest funding will support Culture Amp’s growth, bringing the platform and its ethos to more companies around the world. “Together we want to go and find another 1,000 people.” “The world’s most naive business plan” “The thing I am the most inspired by is that 400 people around the world have chosen to put their shoulder to this wheel,” he explains. “This is a big bet on the space, not just on us.”Įqually, rather than measuring success in revenues and raises, Elzinga says “the best yardstick of the success of the company” is the staff members.
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“If a company that’s building software to help improve culture has now grown to be more valuable than many others, that’s a good story,” he adds. “I’m probably more proud of the fact that it’s an indication that people and culture matters,” he explains. What is more exciting, Elzinga says, is the boost this funding gives the HR tech more broadly, and what it says about corporate values. “Let’s not celebrate raising money, let’s celebrate what we do with it.”
“The amount of money you’ve raised is not a correlation to how successful you’re going to be,” he says. However, achieving Aussie unicorn status isn’t the be-all and end-all. “Technically the definition of a unicorn is $US1 billion,” Elzinga says, suggesting that Culture Amp is perhaps “a larrikin unicorn”. This latest raise brings Culture Amp’s total funding to more than $230 million, and brings the startup’s valuation to $1.04 billion - nudging it tentatively into unicorn territory. “The market is good at the moment … there’s a strong appetite for what we’re doing.” When is a unicorn not a unicorn?
“It was an opportunity to really put the foot down and continue investing in this idea of a people and culture platform, rather than just an engagement platform,” he explains. The funding round will allow the startup to make the most out of this momentum, Elzinga says. The business has been making “a big push” into development work and improving its offering. Nick Crocker, partner at venture firm Blackbird Ventures, said it was Blackbird’s seventh time investing in Culture Amp, and the trend for startups staying private for longer was set to continue.It now has some 2,500 customers in 47 countries, offices in Melbourne, San Francisco, New York and London, and 400 staff members globally.Įlzinga tells StartupSmart the startup is still seeing revenues “pretty much doubling” year-on-year.Įarlier this year, Culture Amp acquired performance management company Zugata, in a bid to help organisations act on the insight they receive. “We’re in the fortunate position where we don’t need to do that and I think that’s one of the great things about the investment markets at the moment that if you look at your Canvas, Culture Amps and Safety Cultures, we were able to continue to get investment to just build the best business we can.” “If we hadn’t done this raise, maybe we would have got into a situation where we’re like ‘We need to IPO to continue to fund the growth of the business’,” Mr Elzinga said. Documents filed with ASIC show the company reported revenue of $US45.8 million and a loss of $US33.8 million last financial year.Ĭulture Amp’s ballooning valuation sees it join the ranks of Australian startups Canva, Safety Culture and Airwallex, which have all recorded multi-billion dollar valuations as private companies. Mr Elzinga said Culture Amp had recorded over $100 million in recurring revenue over the past year while continuing to be cash flow positive. “How do we help create more sustainable cultures, more healthy cultures that can get us through not just for the next six months, but for the next six years?” “What we’re seeing right now is people are succeeding, but they’re also burning out,” he said.
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