StaffAny raises US$3.4 million in Series A Funding

SINGAPORE, Jan. 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Workforce management solution start-up, StaffAny, today announced that it has raised US$3.4 million in its Series A funding round. This investment was led by GGV Capital, with participation from East Ventures, FreakOut Shinsei Fund, Far East Ventures, Farquhar Venture Capital and prolific business angels such as Allen Shim, the former CFO of Slack. StaffAny will use this new investment to grow the company, expand regionally and develop new features for its workforce management solution.

"We are proud to back StaffAny, as they empower SMEs to manage their hourly workforce. Despite F&B being the worst-hit industry by COVID-19, StaffAny saw strong growth and unprecedented adoption among the SMEs, a testament to its product and the resiliency of its leadership team. SMB tech is a sector GGV invests in globally. We are excited to work with StaffAny as they expand and scale," said Jixun Foo, Global Managing Partner at GGV Capital.

StaffAny is supported by NUS Enterprise, the entrepreneurial arm of the National University of Singapore, incubated at BLOCK71 Singapore and founded by a team of alumni from NUS and the NUS Overseas Colleges programme.

Connecting HR and operations

StaffAny helps businesses in the blue collar workforce optimise their operational scheduling, time tracking and HR end-of-month timesheet consolidation. With StaffAny, businesses can improve their performance and efficiency, while cutting operating costs. This is done through the following functions:

• Employee scheduling – with an online rostering schedule, managers assign staff with just the click of the button. Managers can easily view staff scheduling across multiple outlets, as well as forecast labour needs and costs for the following week. Any last-minute scheduling updates are quickly communicated amongst the team, keeping everyone in the loop automatically.
• Timeclock/ timesheets – Staff clock in and out using their mobile devices and a cloud timeclock. Businesses can track attendance of their employees, across different locations, without the need for troublesome punch-cards or inaccurate manual sign-ins. If employees' shifts change, their timesheets are automatically updated for seamless payroll management. Timesheets are transparent for improved trust and so staff can flag out any errors quickly and eliminate pay-slip discrepancies.
• Leave Application – Staff apply for leave online and management/ HR simply approve or decline. The automated system allows managers to see who is available to schedule and who is away. As employees work longer and are entitled to more leave days, leave balance is auto-added. Any leave carried forward is calculated upon yearly completion. A Leave Report consolidates all necessary leave information in one place for better clarity, visibility and transparency.
• Real-time Reports – Managers can stay on top of things through exportable month-end reports, which reveal all information. Up-to-date reports can be downloaded from StaffAny's cloud solution, anytime, anywhere. Not only is this useful for managers to keep track of employees' work performance, it also provides peace of mind as all data is transparent for audit reporting.
• Connected workforce – Through its fully integrated and transparent solution, StaffAny empowers staff to take better control of their work performance. Staff are proactively reminded of their shifts to reduce late check-ins, and both compliments and warnings can be issued to encourage improved performance. Selected managers can be notified when things go wrong, for speedy action.

Prepared for the pandemic and future growth

"Due to social distancing requirements and work from home stipulations, the current pandemic has accelerated the need for digitalisation of workforce management. Companies are increasingly aware how such tools enable them to scale efficiently, as well as generate data that improves operations and increases profits," said Janson Seah, Co-Founder of StaffAny.

"Despite the pandemic, last year, we managed to increase our geographical reach to seven countries. In 2021, our workforce management solution tracked over 11 million employee hours and helped to save more than 350,000 man hours," added Co-Founder Eugene Ng.

Last year, StaffAny updated their workforce management solution to ensure it supports businesses struggling with COVID-19 regulation issues. This includes an integrated workflow with TraceTogether (in Singapore) and MySejahtera (in Malaysia), for easy clock-in compliance and contact tracing of employees, testing reminders for staff to conduct their ART tests, as well as updates on staff's vaccination status.

In 2021, StaffAny also upgraded its workforce management solution to further increase operational efficiency and support customers' revenue goals. This included adding new features to improve operational efficiency, such as Auto-Scheduling, where best staff are scheduled into empty shifts, based on customisable criteria and rules, as well as Sales-based Scheduling, which allows managers to allocate manpower to meet sales targets and sales per labour hour.

Moving forward, to improve its core solution, StaffAny will develop a new product, in the area of Employee Engagement, to help businesses improve employee performance and retain valued employees. StaffAny is currently test-bedding this solution, and any businesses keen to explore are invited for early access. StaffAny plans to scale its team this year and expand beyond Singapore, specifically targeting Malaysia and Indonesia markets.

"We previously used a facial recognition system to handle our employee clock-in and clock out. Unfortunately, the software was not very accurate and often wrong employees would be identified, which meant HR had to do a lot of manual adjustments. In addition, StaffAny's time-scheduling feature has saved our managers so much time every week. The process of linking timesheets to payroll is seamless, and productivity has improved significantly! Furthermore, StaffAny were able to make certain customisations to suit the unique way our organisation is structured," explained Claudia Lin, HR Manager, SaladStop!

About StaffAny

StaffAny aims to empower today's connected workforce through the provision of a data-driven approach to managing hourly workers. StaffAny's workforce management solution connects HR and Operations within organisations, to enable businesses to be connected to the leaner workforce of tomorrow. For more information, please visit https://www.staffany.com

About GGV Capital

Co-founded in Silicon Valley and Singapore in 2000, GGV Capital is a global venture firm that invests in local founders. With $9.2 billion under our management, we have investments in the United States, Canada, China, Southeast Asia, India, Latin America, and Israel. As a multi-stage, sector-focused firm, GGV Capital invests in seed-to-growth stage companies across three sectors: Social/Internet, Enterprise Tech, and Smart Tech. Over the past two decades, we have backed more than 400 companies around the world, including Affirm, Airbnb, Alibaba, Big Commerce, Boss Zhipin, Grab, HashiCorp, Hello, JD MRO, Keep, Kujiale, Manbang, NIU, Opendoor Technologies, Peloton, Poshmark, Qunar/Ctrip, Slack, Square, StockX, Udaan, Wish, XPeng, Zendesk, and more. For more information, please visit https://www.ggvc.com/

About NUS Enterprise

NUS Enterprise, the entrepreneurial arm of NUS, plays a pivotal role in advancing innovation and entrepreneurship at NUS and beyond. It actively promotes entrepreneurship and cultivates global mind-sets and talents through the synergies of experiential entrepreneurial education, active industry partnerships, holistic entrepreneurship support and catalytic entrepreneurship outreach. Its initiatives and global connections support a range of entrepreneurial journeys and foster ecosystem building in new markets. These initiatives augment and complement the University's academic programmes and act as a unique bridge to industry well beyond Singapore's shores. For more information, please visit https://enterprise.nus.edu.sg.