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SoftBank Vision Fund 2 led the funding with existing investors, a16z, GGV, Workday Ventures, M12 – Microsoft's Venture Fund
REDWOOD CITY, Calif., May 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- WorkBoard, the Enterprise Results and OKR Platform, announced today that it has raised an additional $75 million in growth funding. SoftBank Vision Fund 2* led the round, and existing investors Andreessen Horowitz, GGV Capital, Workday Ventures, and M12 – Microsoft's Venture Fund participated alongside new investors Capital One Ventures and SVB Capital. WorkBoard will invest the funds in platform development, customer community, and expansion of its sales and marketing efforts.
To take advantage of an expanding economy and pervasive changes in the way customers buy and people work, companies must raise their agility and velocity. According to PwC, before the pandemic 40% of executives felt "highly agile" in flexibly making changes but that number plummeted to 18% as that agility was tested over the past 12 months. With the Federal Reserve projecting the fastest GDP growth in more than 35 years at 6.5%, companies across sectors are adopting OKRs and accelerating their operating rhythm to keep pace with market change. The fastest and largest tech organizations including Cisco, IBM, and Microsoft, and a growing number of financial institutions, manufacturers, life science, and healthcare companies have adopted WorkBoard and OKRs to accelerate their business and growth.
"Today organizations globally need a faster, more agile approach to drive their strategies and operating rhythms. We believe WorkBoard's leading platform helps organizations to define, align and manage strategic outcomes more efficiently," said Nagraj Kashyap, Managing Partner at SoftBank Investment Advisers. "As an avid user of WorkBoard, I led its Series A funding while previously at M12, and am delighted to continue our partnership with Deidre and the WorkBoard team to fuel their next stage of growth."
"As more companies commit to a future of fully-remote or hybrid work, OKRs and transparent results management are essential to keeping distributed teams aligned," said Matthew Goldstein, Managing Director at M12. "WorkBoard is driving incredible value to shared customers through integrations with technologies like Microsoft Teams, and several groups at Microsoft—including M12—are using WorkBoard to accelerate operating rhythms."
"Now every industry needs to be fast, agile, and responsive to shifts in the market. The ability to rapidly adjust strategic priorities, align and mobilize is quickly becoming table stakes for growth," says Deidre Paknad, WorkBoard CEO and Co-Founder. "WorkBoard increases strategic agility and operating rhythm 4x while creating pervasive transparency. I'm excited to work with Nagraj again and invest aggressively in deeper customer relationships, platform advantage and faster growth."
About WorkBoard
WorkBoard's Enterprise Results Platform and results advisory services unlock growth and competitive advantage for customers through high alignment, strong focus, and transparency using OKRs. Since its general release in 2014, WorkBoard's Results Platform and Outcome Mindset Methodology have earned the trust of hundreds of organizations at large enterprises and high growth companies such as AstraZeneca, Microsoft, Cisco, Workday, IBM, 3M, VMware, Juniper, Zuora, LexisNexis, Malwarebytes, and more. It pioneered OKR coaching with the first of its kind professional development curriculum that has now certified over 7,000 OKR Coaches in the Outcome Mindset Method™ since 2018. WorkBoard is based in Redwood City, Calif. Investors include Softbank Vision Fund 2, Andreessen Horowitz, GGV Capital, Workday Ventures, M12 – Microsoft's Venture Fund, Capital One Ventures, and SVB Capital.
Workboard's upcoming conference, Accelerate Spring '21, showcases Geoffrey Moore, best-selling author of Crossing the Chasm and Zone to Win, and executives from Cisco, Microsoft, Avalara, EXL Healthcare, Praxis, VMware, Iterable, and Zuora. They will discuss how they drive bold visions for a more digital future, raise agility and velocity, and energize teams to achieve their best possible. The virtual conference will be held May 24-27, 2021.
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*As of the date of this press release, SoftBank Group Corp. has made capital contributions to allow investments by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 ("SVF 2") in certain portfolio companies. The information included herein is made for informational purposes only and does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy limited partnership interests in any fund, including SVF 2. SVF 2 has yet to have an external close, and any potential third-party investors shall receive additional information related to any SVF 2 investments prior to closing.
