New Zealand's workplace feedback startup Joyous raises Nz$15

New Zealand based startup Joyous has raised Nz$15 million (A$14.2m) from Square Peg. Existing investors AirTree Ventures and Icehouse Ventures also participated in the funding round. 

Two brothers, Mike and Phillip Carden, founded Joyous in 2017 to helps managers collect and act on open feedback across all areas of the organisation. It replaces the traditional anonymous surveys. Mike and Philip also share the co-CEO role in a triumvirate with Ruby Kolesky. They plan to use the money raised from the recent funding to support global recruiting across New Zealand, Australia and US this year. 

Cardens believe that by treating feedback as a conversation rather than a funnel, leaders and teams can unearth issues and act together to create positive change.

The team at Joyous shared how the startup has experienced record growth following the shift to remote work and acceleration of the need for more frequent, natural and agile employee interactions. 

The global clientele of Joyous includes leading telecommunications providers and utilities, and the company has been racking up million dollar deals over the past year. 

Mike added that open feedback is the next evolution of the modern workforce and changing workplace. Speaking on the funding, Airtree partner John Henderson said, “Mike, Philip and the team are revolutionising open feedback within enterprise and the reaction Joyous has received from blue chip customers absolutely validates their approach."

Remote working, in the last 18 months has nudged the HR teams to create consistent feedback loops in the flow of work. As workforce demands more transparency and psychological safety, tech tools like Joyous can enable organisations to build open feedback systems and allow the talent to make most of them. But how do these solutions integrate with the existing culture of the organisation will determine its effective adoption.