Exclusive: HR solutions platform Tydy raises $275K from angel investors

Bangalore-based employee onboarding and engagement platform Tydy has raised $275,000 in angel investment from a group of individuals, including existing investor Bhupen Shah, former co-founder of Sling Media. Others who also invested in the firm are Jayesh Parekh, managing partner at Jungle Ventures and co-founder of Sony Entertainment in India and Sanjay Sathe, founder of outplacement firm RiseSmart, which was later acquired by Randstad.

The startup will use the capital for marketing and sales. "We have grown to a phase where we can focus on making repeatable profits, therefore, our focus now is more on sales and marketing and managing deployments," Kiran Menon, chief executive and co-founder of Tydy told VCCircle.

Tydy's mobile-first HR automation solution offers three key components to enterprises - employee onboarding, engagement and retention. 'Tydy Onboarding' automates the entire onboarding process, helping enterprises save on costs and strategic resources. For employees, it offers a gamified, mobile-first interface to easily complete the enrolment forms. 'Tydy Listen' is an employee engagement tool that helps firms receive regular feedback and sentiment analysis from employees. 'Tydy Score' is a predictive engine that collates data points right from onboarding, feedback, and sentiment analysis to create a single profile or score for every employee.

Owned and operated by Pagestitch Inc., Tydy's client base includes Lowe's, Taj Hotels, Kotak Mahindra, Sanofi, and Bajaj Finance.

Tydy was founded in 2013 by Menon along with Nikhil Gurjer and Gaurabh Mathure. Menon worked with web browser firm Opera Software and Gurjer was associated with mobile services firm Mobivatar Interactive and Crystera Technologies in the past. Mathure, who handles Tydy's US operations, previously worked with advertising agency R/GA.

Initially, the firm offered a mobile collaboration tool for sales and marketing teams. The platform helped businesses manage their content and communications. Later, Tydy pivoted its entire product and launched the beta version of the HR tools in December 2015.

"We consciously decided to stop that product and relook our assumptions. We did market research again and realised the need for mobility solutions was much higher in the HR departments of organisations and in a few critical processes. That's when we made the pivot," Menon explained.

The company had raised $138,000 from a group of angel investors, including Sling Media's Shah, in September 2014 for the sales product.

The startup was part of the maiden edition of IT major Oracle's startup accelerator programme, which was held last year in June. Other firms that were chosen for the programme are ExpertRec, a plug-n-play search and recommendation engine for online marketplaces; Niyo Solutions, a fin-tech startup focused on alternate payment mechanisms; Ray iCare, an Internet of Things and artificial intelligence-based non-contact health and sleep monitor for babies; and Vear, an AI and VR-based content distribution and marketing platform.

The six-month Oracle Startup Cloud Accelerator Programme (OSCA) provides emerging firms mentorship from Oracle and industry experts, a co-working space, access to Oracle's customers and partners, and free access to Oracle Cloud including training. On the last day of the programme, startups can pitch their idea to technology investors and leaders.