Omaha-based startup Workshop raises $5M to streamline internal email and communications
OMAHA, Nebraska — July 21, 2022 – Workshop, a delightful platform for distributing and measuring internal email and communications, has raised $5.2 million in additional seed funding.
The round was led by McCarthy Capital out of their Emerging Growth strategy. It also included support from a group of prominent Silicon Valley and Midwest venture funds, including Coelius Capital, All Access Fund, Invest Nebraska, and M25.
This additional round of investment follows a pre-seed round for $3.5 million in April 2021. In the last year, Workshop has developed a standout platform for internal email and built up a customer base that’s responsible for communications to over 50,000 employees every month, from Fortune 100 companies to beloved brands like Lime and Home Chef.
“Evolving work styles and the shift toward hybrid workplaces have increased the importance of employee communication,” said BJ Hansen, Managing Director at McCarthy Capital. “Workshop enables companies to better connect and engage with their employees. We are excited to work with the experienced team at Workshop to support their efforts to become the leading platform for internal communications.”
Workshop was co-founded in 2020 by Rick Knudtson (former founder of Flywheel), Ben Stevinson, and Derek Homann (former founders of Median). The group came together with a shared vision to help other organizations create positive, engaging company culture through great internal communication.
“We’re excited to partner with McCarthy Capital through the next phase of growth. They believe in our product vision, our team, and the opportunity in the market,” said CEO and co-founder Rick Knudtson. “With the new capital, we’ll double down on our product strategy and work to provide even more robust solutions for internal communications teams across the world.”
The startup plans to use the funds to continue to fuel product innovation and accelerate hiring, with a current focus on recruiting engineering and sales talent.
Workshop also announced the official launch of their new Automatic Lists feature, which enables internal communications teams to integrate with their best employee data sources and create their own automatically updated distribution lists (without the need for IT support). Workshop is able to deliver this feature by offering more integrations than any other internal email platform, enabling teams to pull in employee contact data from Outlook or Google, their HRIS system (including UKG, Workday, and more), or their payroll software (including Gusto, ADP, and more).
“We’re really excited to expand Workshop’s contact management and integrations to meet customers where they’re at, no matter what tooling they’re already using,” said Chief Technology Officer and co-founder Ben Stevinson. “We’ve seen a strong signal that we’re able to solve our customer’s biggest internal comms pain points in a way that hasn’t been possible before.”
For more information and to request a demo, head to useworkshop.com.
ABOUT WORKSHOP
Workshop is the most effective way to create, send, and measure employee emails and branded internal communications across distributed teams. It’s intentionally built for internal use, with easy drag-and-drop templates, automatically updated distribution lists, and valuable engagement data. It also integrates with all of the internal communication channels you already use, including Slack, Sharepoint, SMS, Microsoft Teams, and more. Make every internal email a great employee experience with Workshop!
ABOUT MCCARTHY CAPITAL
McCarthy Partners Management, LLC is a registered investment advisor that conducts business as McCarthy Capital. McCarthy Capital, headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, is focused exclusively on lower middle-market companies. For more than 35 years, the McCarthy organization has been partnering with founders, families and exceptional management teams to support the growth of their companies. More information about McCarthy Capital can be obtained at www.mccarthycapital.com.