Happeo receives $26 million to provide staff a centralized intranet site

It's becoming more difficult for employees to manage and track information across multiple services as companies adopt new tools that allow them to work remotely. The challenge is not only for the C-suite, but also for lower-level employees who are now having to deal with the slew of apps available from employers. According to Statista, the average enterprise uses 110 software-as-a-service apps today, up from eight in 2015. Coveo discovered that workers now spend an average of 3 hours per day searching for information, compared to 8 in 2015.

Perttu Ojansuu will answer your question about intranets. This is a digital portal that centralizes a lot of the software and documentation for a business. Ojansuu is aware of his bias. He co-founded Happeo (an intranet startup that connects employees to company tools), in 2010. Ojansuu claims that his views were shaped by his experience working with customers at Gapps in Finland, a reseller of Google Workspace.

In a recent interview, Ojansuu stated that co-founder Antero Hanshirova and he saw a huge opportunity to assist Nordic enterprise companies with their cloud transformation. "During our Gapps time, we identified a significant and consistent challenge that our customers were facing: there wasn't any central source of truth for information that could be readily integrated with other software-as-a-service tools ... In 2016, born from that customer challenge, we decided to create a comprehensive solution for our customers."

In early 2016, Ojansuu, Hanhirova launched Happeo’s first incarnation, "Universe." The two officially founded the company in 2017. Happeo has raised over $47 million in venture capital to date. This includes a $26 million Series A round that was co-led today by Endeit Capital and Smartfin, as well as Evli Growth Partners. The Series B was also attended by Vendep Capital, Maki.vc and Inkef Capital.

Happeo is a platform that connects people and teams in an "organic" way, Ojansuu explains. It allows them to create pages and channels around projects and other mutual interests. This platform links resources and apps in a searchable home portal. It also features a launcher that allows employees jump into different software.

Happeo's "federated searching" capability allows for search across multiple internal tools within a company. The service, which integrates with Microsoft 365 as well as Google Workspace, also allows users to store shared files and documents. An analytics dashboard on the back shows metrics such as channel, page, and post engagement as well as search activity (e.g. the most searched keywords).

Ojansuu explained in an email Q&A that tech companies are growing fast and don't have the time to create processes. This results in information chaos which can lead to low productivity and poor employee experience. Happeo is the solution. It removes the need to share important updates via instant messaging platforms so that teams can use these tools to collaborate, rather than being overwhelmed by information.

These intranet platforms are not new. They have been around for decades in some form. There are many competitors in this space, including Microsoft and Google. Simpplr raised $32million last July for its intranet site-building tools. Staffbase, which provides intranet-style communications platform for business users, has recently raised $115 million at an estimated $1.1 billion valuation.

It is worth noting, however, that large funding rounds reflect the general enthusiasm of VCs for HR technology. With over 300 deals, the year 2021 was a record year in terms of investment by HR tech vendors. It saw $14 billion.

Happeo must overcome the perception that intranets are not particularly useful or enjoyable from a user's perspective. A survey revealed that only 13% employees use their intranets daily, and 31% have never used them. Research shows that outdated and irrelevant content, as well as a lack in clarity of purpose, are the main culprits.

Ojansuu insists that Happeo's approach is more holistic than others.

"Work is no longer an environment where employees can come together to share their knowledge, bounce ideas off one another, communicate and build trust and connection. Brick-and-mortar office spaces and water cooler conversations are gone. TechCrunch was told by Ojansuu that workers brought all of this information into their home offices. "Employee experience has become the centre of the HR tech market... [E]veryone wants an 'experience layer" that is visible to employees. Happeo actively addresses this issue by being the central source for truth for companies that can access all information.

Ojansuu claims that Rajeev Suri (the former CEO of Nokia) was convinced by the sales pitch to invest in a Finnish startup. It was likely that Happeo had 366 customers before the Series B closed. This included Marqeta, Decathlon, and Pinterest.

"Happeo's solutions to business problems are critical for success. Companies need them urgently, in both times of economic growth and downturn. Happeo doesn't expect this to have any impact on its growth. Ojansuu stated that Q2 2022 was a record-setting quarter for the company. "We are in a great place, having just closed our Series A round, and there are many job openings, particularly in sales and tech."

Ojansuu states that in the short term, the goal is to invest heavily in Happeo’s product development. This will include new apps and service integrations. Happeo is planning to expand in North America, with a focus on New York's sales and customer service teams.

Happeo currently employs 124 people and anticipates having 160 by the end.