The inclusive workplace is top of agenda as companies struggle to hire new talent. Yet, once hired, new employees often need months to begin contributing with their expertise. The rise of remote work also shows that emails, messengers, and the intranet are not enough to integrate talent. New hires and diverse employees lack an opportunity to connect with people, get the guidance, and experience the essence of an organisation in the home office. The current corporate tech stack misses a ‘people layer’ that centres around the individual employee experience and creates a safe and flexible space for informal exchange in the new normal.
Rising to bridge the gap, a Munich-based platform is connecting organisations for know-how exchange and collaboration based on skills. Mentessa has now raised €1 million funding for doing so. The seed round was led by Sofia-based fund Eleven Ventures, which has earlier been the first to invest in unicorns on the rise like Payhawk and Gtmhub.
Founded in 2019 by Tina Ruseva and Andrey Andreev, the German startup is on a mission to remove barriers to diversity and collaboration for everyone in the workplace. Taking on Slack, Mentessa offers to build a community with no content, ensuring authentic data, and inclusive collaboration across organisational boundaries.
Tina Ruseva, co-founder and CEO, Mentessa said: "Work is really not about checking boxes, running processes, or climbing the hierarchy ladder. The purpose of organisations is to bring people together so they can solve meaningful problems, better and faster, learn from each other, grow, innovate, and create new opportunities.”
The people-fist app empowers employees to find the right peer at the right time, learn from each other, and share experiences. Smart algorithms help colleagues overcome psychological barriers and purposely connect with others beyond hierarchy, location, or bias.
Andrey Andreev, co-founder and CTO said: “As innovation happens at the intersection of different disciplines, removing information silos and barriers to collaboration are the only way to tap into the collective intelligence of the most intelligent species on Earth - us, and solve the global challenges ahead."
After being in operations just for a year, the startup’s client list includes Deutsche Telekom, Linde, and OTPbank.
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