SEATTLE, Washington – August 29, 2023 - TeamSense, the app-free platform connecting hourly employees and their companies, today announced its $4 million seed capital raise to expand its team and scale its product to reach the frontline workers behind the world’s leading manufacturing businesses. The round was led by Bonfire Ventures with support from Operator Collective.
Hourly workers are the backbone of many organizations, and direct communication with those individuals is fundamental to enhancing engagement, productivity and attendance. With an estimated 80% of the workforce being deskless – and often without corporate emails or access to a computer – the communication disconnect between employees and employers is growing. After realizing this digital connection gap and leveraging the familiarity and accessibility of text messaging, TeamSense is breaking down traditional barriers to workforce management and ushering in a new era of connectivity in the manufacturing industry via SMS.
“I’ve built a career in manufacturing and have long been privy to the nuances and complications that frontline workers face when communicating with their employers,” said Sheila Stafford, CEO and Co-Founder of TeamSense. “The current system is not working, and many technological advancements are leaving more and more people behind. With TeamSense, employers can now effectively reach 100% of their workforce and ditch the tedious, time-intensive tasks – because when employers understand their workers, everyone benefits.”
Brett Queener, Partner at Bonfire Ventures: “We are thrilled to invest in TeamSense as they offer manufacturers, for the first time, a digital connection that resonates with and is embraced by all their hourly employees. We were blown away by the testimony and delight from Teamsense's customers - which is no surprise given the manufacturing chops and empathy that Sheila and her amazing team possess and exude.”
With absenteeism at record levels and growing privacy concerns from employees around having work-related apps on their personal devices, TeamSense is the only text-based solution that meets hourly workers where they are – without them needing to download or navigate employer-specific apps. Today TeamSense provides many solutions, including:
(1) Absence Management (TeamSense’s hero product): a modern employee call out system that sees 100% adoption, zero disputes and immediate ROI by providing employees with a seamless way to call out of work – and helps management teams to efficiently oversee absenteeism without the added pressure of manual error in obtaining accurate employee numbers
(2) Employee Communication: instantly connecting companies with the entire hourly workforce
(3) Engagement and Pulse Surveys: providing a platform for real-time feedback from team members
(4) Employee Portal: allowing remote ease of access to internal resources
(5) Text to Apply: a simple and effective way to attract new talent
Since its inception in 2020, TeamSense has been serving some of the largest manufacturers across North America, including several tier 1 automotive suppliers, DHL, and HelloFresh. TeamSense is the connective tissue that deeply understands the operational needs of mass corporations and the personal hurdles for hourly workers. Via the direct-to-employee functionality and digital connection, text messages have recorded a 98% open rate with a 90-second response time, and as a result, TeamSense users at multinational 3PL have reported a 39% reduction in absenteeism rate and saved 3,360 hours on average per 1,000 employees annually.
To learn more about TeamSense’s solutions or to explore open career opportunities, visit teamsense.com.
https://www.teamsense.com/
