Dutch HR-tech startup Flex-Appeal raises €600,000 for its employee experience app

HR-tech startup Flex-Appeal based in Rotterdam has raised a €600,000 seed round which will be used to support the growth of its employee experience app. Users of the app include such organizations as Albert Heijn, New York Pizza, Gamma, Karwei, Randstad, and the Amsterdam Arena.

Flex-Appeal offers an employee experience app for the retail and hospitality sectors. The aim of the app is to engage the front-line employees and make them feel connected with the company they work for. “We’re offering an all-in-one solution to help companies in these industries improve their employee experience”, says founder Ruben Wieman. “Having worked in these industries as a 17-year-old employee myself, I know that many elements of this experience were still very old fashioned”.

Flex-Appeals’ customers can manage various aspects of their employee experience all through one platform. Either when it comes to fast and efficient communication with all front-line employees or (digitally) welcoming and onboarding new hires. “The app also offers many practical benefits to the employees”, according to the co-founder Guido Schmitz (who is 22 years old, just like Ruben). “They’re able to view their personal schedule and no longer have to spend a lot of hours calling and texting colleagues whenever they need to find a replacement, thanks to our Flexchange functionality”.

Old fashioned and messy

The idea of Flex-Appeal was born four years ago, hen Ruben was working for both one of the largest Dutch supermarkets as well as a well-known fast-food chain. He was surprised about the way information was communicated to the employees.

“Many aspects of the so-called ‘employee experience’ were just old fashioned and messy. Today’s generation is used to apps such as Snapchat and Instagram. When it comes to their job, however, they’re forced to communicate through tools that belong to former generations, like company newsletters and intranets. Schedules are still printed manually and displayed in the cafeteria. Many large companies in the retail and hospitality sectors are at least ten years behind when it comes to digital solutions for their employees.”

Ruben was convinced there was a better way of communication among employees and started Flex-Appeal. “While we are seeing an increase in employee-related apps in the market, many of them only focus on a single element of the overall experience. This means you’ll end up using seven different apps simultaneously. That’s something employees nor their employers are excited about.”

Funding

Almost two years ago, the HR-tech startup announced a €185,000 euro angel round. Flex-Appeal’s new funding round is led by two business angels. The company will use the money for their expansion and develop new functionalities for the app. Flex-Appeal currently has a team of eight, which they plan to double in the upcoming months. The open positions include developers, marketers, and account managers.

In the first two weeks of the year, Flex-Appeal welcomed four large supermarkets and hundreds of employees to their platform. “Our ambition is to create the world’s best employee experience platform for non-desk companies, making millions of employees feel more connected with their companies and making their work more fun,” Wieman states.