Confirm, the “first” platform to inject the science of Organizational Network Analysis (ONA) into performance reviews to help people leaders make fairer, faster, and data-driven talent decisions, announced that it has raised $6.2 million in Series A funding, bringing its total investment to $11.4 million.
The investment round was “led by Spero Ventures with participation from SHRMLabs, Elefund, Gaingels, Black Angel Group and several existing customers.”
Josh Merrill, co-founder and CEO of Confirm, said:
“Performance reviews are broken –– and approaches like continuous feedback and 360 assessments that claim to be the solution are actually making them worse. Our mission of fixing performance management has never been more relevant, now that remote work and distributed teams are the norm and managers have less oversight into their teams’ work, performance and impact. This investment will power Confirm’s next stage of growth and is critical to ensuring advancement decisions are based on data, not bias.”
Confirm’s platform is powered “by an approach called Organizational Network Analysis (ONA), which provides a quantitative view of performance based on every employee’s view of one another.”
ONA allows companies to “measure performance in the way it really happens: through networks.” Through ONA, Confirm gives companies, leaders and employees insight into high performers and those “that need additional support, allowing organizations to confidently and accurately make promotion, PIP and retention decisions based on clear data –– rather than subjective opinions of managers.”
Confirm will use the new funds “to fuel product development and boost investment in sales and marketing.”
In addition to its ONA-powered reviews, Confirm’s platform “offers several ChatGPT-4 enabled features, which the new capital will also help further develop,” including:
- Auto-drafted employee reviews using input from peers and managers
- Auto-generated employee engagement survey insights
- Auto-calibrated manager ratings for employees to minimize bias in calibration sessions
- With Spero Ventures’ investment, Andrew Parker, General Partner, will join Confirm’s board as a director.
Parker said:
“It’s well known that the traditional performance review process is plagued with problems, including bias and inefficiency –– everyone dreads them. Confirm is dedicated to changing that dynamic, and bringing network-driven decision making to the HR realm, helping to both broaden inputs and automate much of the process. Josh and his team already have great traction in this market and a track record of innovation, and we’re excited to see what’s next.”
This funding announcement comes “after a landmark year for Confirm.”
David Murray, co-founder and president of Confirm, said:
“This Series A investment coupled with recognition and backing from industry-leading sources like Fast Company and SHRM reinforce the need for our solution to revolutionize the broken performance review process. I’m proud of our team and looking forward to this next phase of Confirm’s growth: creating a world where employees are recognized and rewarded for their hard work and positive impact, not their ability to play office politics.”
Confirm’s customers include Canada Goose, Niantic, and Thoropass, “the latter of which used Confirm to accurately identify and retain 100% of its top performers during The Great Resignation, saving millions in costs associated with employee turnover.”
Joe Bast, Vice President of People & Operations at Thoropass, a current Confirm customer. remarked:
“Prior to using Confirm, we didn’t have good data and accurate measurement on who is best connected, who are people going to for advice and who needs help. Organizational Network Analysis (ONA) is an absolute breakthrough with performance management; it is exceptionally insightful. By using Confirm, we now know who the influencers are, the high and low performers, who needs help, and what to do to keep the best.”