As many employees continue to work from home, employers look for ways to keep morale up as they manage productivity.
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San Francisco-based Zira Technologies announced its first institutional funding, a $3.1 million seed round, to further develop its cloud-based platform that optimizes labor efficiency and employee morale for shift-based workforces.
Lead investors General Catalyst and Abstract Ventures were joined by angel investors, including Jana Messerschmidt, Lee Fixel, Aaron Schildkrout, Daniel Graf and Joe Montana.
Zira’s creators, Arjun Vora and Tito Goldstein, formerly worked at Uber; Vora, as head of driver design, while Goldstein was head of product design at Uber for Business. While working on ways to schedule drivers, they saw an opportunity to improve the lives of employees while also improving business outcomes, Vora told Crunchbase News.
Their platform automates daily tasks, such as scheduling shifts and assessing performance, and is even able to alert management of potential negative scenarios before they happen. It also provides a place for employees to voice their concerns, which aids in retention.
Bua Vanishta, owner of delivery-only restaurants, including Chicken As Cluck and Macho Taco, switched to Zira in March.
“I had Zira working on my tablet at the restaurant, and my staff was already up and running before I could even tell them about the new system,” Vanishta said in a written statement. “We are opening more locations in Texas, and I’m excited to have Zira ready to help streamline those new launches.”
The new funding will be used to bring on Zira’s engineering team full-time, as well as make additional hires.
Zira is already live and the tools are providing results for businesses across the U.S., Canada, Mexico and India. In addition to its San Francisco headquarters, the company also has offices in Palo Alto, New York and Boston.
Next up, the company will explore other sectors where the pain point is greatest, work on its sales strategy, and build new capabilities, Vora said.
“Employees are the ones often left short-handed,” he added. “We are making a solution that enables employers to do right by their employees, and in return, reap the benefits of an engaged workforce.”
Photos of Zira co-founders Arjun Vora and Tito Goldstein and app courtesy of Zira.
Blogroll illustration: Li-Anne Dias
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