General Atlantic leads €122 million round at Staffbase

Chemnitz/Munich/New York — Staff­base, a leading provi­der of digi­tal solu­ti­ons for inter­nal corpo­rate commu­ni­ca­ti­ons, and Gene­ral Atlan­tic, a leading global growth inves­tor, have agreed on a stra­te­gic part­ner­ship: Gene­ral Atlan­tic is leading a €122 million ($145 million) finan­cing round for the Chem­nitz, Germany-based start-up to help it grow inter­na­tio­nally and further expand its global leader­ship posi­tion. Of the exis­ting inves­tors, Insights Part­ners and e.ventures are parti­ci­pa­ting in the finan­cing round; KIZOO and Capna­mic Ventures remain inves­ted. As part of the part­ner­ship, Achim Berg (photo), Opera­ting Part­ner at Gene­ral Atlan­tic and Presi­dent of the digi­tal asso­cia­tion BITKOM, will join Staffbase’s Advi­sory Board.

Foun­ded in 2014 in Chem­nitz, Germany, Staff­base has become a fast-growing and award-winning provi­der of employee apps, inter­nal email news­let­ter tools, and modern intra­nets to improve employee commu­ni­ca­ti­ons. The products are used in over 1,000 orga­niza­ti­ons by a total of more than 8 million people and regu­larly win awards. Custo­mers include Adidas, Audi, BHP, Deut­sche Post DHL, Grou­pon, Hita­chi, Ikea, Johns Hopkins Univer­sity, McKes­son, Paula­ner, Suncor, Viess­mann and Volvo.

The Staff­base plat­form enables compa­nies to commu­ni­cate with all their employees in a timely and effec­tive manner: from the crea­tion of messa­ges in the corpo­rate design to the fast and relia­ble publi­ca­tion of messa­ges and the measu­re­ment of the impact of commu­ni­ca­tion measu­res. Staffbase’s solu­ti­ons enable more effec­tive onboar­ding, higher enga­ge­ment and grea­ter employee iden­ti­fi­ca­tion with their employer. More and more compa­nies see inter­nal commu­ni­ca­tion as an essen­tial stra­te­gic task that can be used to guide and involve employees in the digi­tal trans­for­ma­tion. In parti­cu­lar, the Covid 19 pande­mic and the asso­cia­ted proli­fe­ra­tion of a hybrid work envi­ron­ment has once again high­ligh­ted the importance of targe­ted and agile inter­nal communications.

Dr. Martin Böhrin­ger, co-foun­­der and CEO of Staff­base: “Our vision is to bring all employees of a company toge­ther through strong inter­nal commu­ni­ca­tion and a common mission. To achieve this, we support execu­ti­ves and commu­ni­ca­tion profes­sio­nals in large compa­nies with the leading digi­tal plat­form for successful employee commu­ni­ca­tion, which we conti­nue to expand at high speed. The part­ner­ship with Gene­ral Atlan­tic will help us further realize this goal, not least in North America. But also crucial for us is the strong local team in Germany, which will support us with its expertise.”

Dr. Chris­tian Figge, Mana­ging Direc­tor at Gene­ral Atlan­tic: “Staff­base is a global pioneer in the field of soft­ware speci­fi­cally desi­gned for inter­nal commu­ni­ca­ti­ons. We have been follo­wing this exci­ting company for some time and are now looking forward to support­ing the foun­ding and manage­ment team in expan­ding their global market leader­ship. Staff­base is an excel­lent exam­ple of how broad the base of inno­va­tive compa­nies with global ambi­tion now is in Germany.”

Staff­base has 450 employees in eleven loca­ti­ons, with head­quar­ters in Chem­nitz and offices in London, New York, Vancou­ver, Amster­dam and Berlin. In early March, the company merged with Bananatag, the leading Cana­dian provi­der of inter­nal corpo­rate commu­ni­ca­ti­ons. The combi­ned company is one of the world’s largest, highest reve­nue and fastest growing provi­ders of advan­ced inter­nal commu­ni­ca­ti­ons soft­ware. The merger added a native solu­tion for email commu­ni­ca­tion to the estab­lished employee app and intra­net plat­form, as well as deeper inte­gra­ti­ons with Slack and Micro­soft 365 colla­bo­ra­tion tools, inclu­ding Micro­soft Teams and SharePoint.

Staff­base

Staff­base is one of the world’s leading and fastest growing provi­ders of employee apps and modern intra­nets to improve employee commu­ni­ca­tion in large and inter­na­tio­nal compa­nies. The mobile version allows employ­ers to secu­rely reach their employees where­ver they are — in the office, at home, on the factory floor, or on the road. The plat­form gives the work­force better access to corpo­rate infor­ma­tion and digi­tal work­place tools. With head­quar­ters in Chem­nitz and offices in New York, Amster­dam, London, Vancou­ver, Kelowna, Munich, Leip­zig, Berlin, Dres­den and Colo­gne, Staff­base enables inter­nal commu­ni­ca­tion that reaches all employees. Staff­base has more than 1000 custo­mers world­wide — inclu­ding DHL, T‑Systems, Viess­mann, Adidas, Paula­ner, MAN Truck & Bus SE and Audi. For more infor­ma­tion, visit staffbase.com.

Gene­ral Atlantic

Gene­ral Atlan­tic is a leading inter­na­tio­nal growth capi­tal inves­tor that provi­des capi­tal and stra­te­gic support to compa­nies with high growth poten­tial. Foun­ded in 1980, the company combi­nes a colla­bo­ra­tive global approach, indus­­try-speci­­fic exper­tise, a long-term invest­ment hori­zon and a deep under­stan­ding of growth drivers with outstan­ding manage­ment teams to create excep­tio­nal busi­ness models world­wide. Gene­ral Atlantic’s team includes more than 175 invest­ment profes­sio­nals in New York, Amster­dam, Beijing, Green­wich, Hong Kong, Jakarta, London, Mexico City, Mumbai, Munich, Palo Alto, São Paulo, Shang­hai and Singa­pore. www.generalatlantic.com