Workday Ventures: Investing in the Connection Between People and Technology

People are at the heart of business, and as organizations bring more technologies into the fold to better inform decisions and experiences, the connection between people and technology strengthens.

Indeed, the intersection of technology and people is more pronounced than ever. Companies use machine learning to sharpen data analysis, decision making, and efficiency. They’re also using data analytics, machine learning, and other technologies to bolster employee well being, talent recruitment, retention, and their ability to meet growth plans.

As we approach Workday Rising, we’re reflecting on the progress we’ve made at Workday Ventures to find new, cutting-edge solutions that are complementary to Workday offerings and useful for our customers. We see a world with far more collaboration among humans and technologies than ever before—and for good reason. The book, “Human + Machine: Reimagining Work in the Age of AI,” notes that companies that focus on human and machine collaboration create outcomes that are two to more than six times more effective than those that focus on machines or humans alone.

At Workday Ventures, we invest in companies that are elevating people and technology, separately and together. Across our portfolio, these companies are making workplaces and enterprises:

• Faster. Automation and data combine to deliver faster insights and enable people to make speedier decisions. Our portfolio company, Scout RFP, provides a strategic sourcing platform to help organizations source faster and achieve better business outcomes. Automation Anywhere is a leader in Robotic Process Automation (RPA), a fast-evolving technology leveraging software bots that work side-by-side with human workers to automate repetitive, mundane tasks and liberate people to focus on higher-level business initiatives. Data.world helps companies operationalize data by uniting and classifying data, metadata, and analysis no matter where it lives. Integris enables enterprises to more quickly meet regulatory requirements. Workato’s intelligent automation platform helps companies integrate their applications and automate their workflows, so they can streamline operations. Zimit’s platform automates quote-to-order processes for professional services businesses, enabling such things as real-time revenue forecasts.
• Smarter. Having a good handle on data not only enables faster business outcomes, but smarter ones, too. Suplari leverages machine learning to aggregate data to help enterprises better manage suppliers and costs. Sumo Logic’s Continuous Intelligence platform enables companies of all sizes to aggregate and analyze data to get real-time operational, security, and business insights for the Intelligence economy. Workboard helps companies unlock growth using OKRs to improve alignment, accountability, and transparency. Voicea (recently acquired by Cisco) leverages AI to transcribe meeting notes and flag important follow-ups. Scoop makes commuting smarter by bringing co-workers and neighbors together via algorithm-fed, dynamic carpooling.
• Competitive. The smart management of talent is critical to remaining competitive, and several of our portfolio companies focus on just that. Beamery’s Talent Operating System (TOS) enables enterprises to attract, engage, and retain top candidates while providing a seamless talent experience. Pymetrics uses behavioral science and ethical AI to match everyone to their best-fit job, accurately and fairly. Topia is a leading provider of cloud-based global mobility management solutions that enables enterprises to deploy, manage, and engage employees anywhere in the world. Mya automates candidate engagement and communication at scale via it’s conversational AI platform. Utmost enables Workday customers to gain full visibility into their extended workforce, including contingent and freelance workers, consultants, and others.
• More inclusive. More and more, companies recognize that inclusive and diverse workplaces are more productive, and that enabling all employees to be their best selves drives business success, too. Guild Education partners with Fortune 1,000 companies to offer education benefits to employees to prepare more Americans for the future of work. Landit unlocks the “talent of everyone in the workplace” by providing women and diverse groups with tools and human connections to navigate careers. Unbabel enables modern enterprises to serve customers in their native languages with their AI-powered and human-refined “Translation-as-a-Service” platform that enables multilingual communication at a quality, speed, and scale not possible before. Such companies and technologies spread connection and extend opportunities to make workplaces more inclusive.
• Healthier. Employee wellbeing is becoming a bigger business priority as organizations realize the value of having happier, healthier, and more productive employees. BetterUp pioneered the space of providing personalized, one-to-one coaching to workers at all levels of a company, and increasingly uses technology to better match clients with coaches and content. Vida Health uses the best of data science, behavioral science, and the human touch of coaches, nutritionists, therapists, and other experts to deliver personalized health programs, so workplaces and workers stay healthier and more engaged.

We see great value in what these companies can provide for Workday customers—the overarching goal of Workday Ventures. By investing in early-to-growth-stage companies that are shaping the next generation of enterprise technology, we provide our customers with access to innovative partner solutions that are forging new ways of working, driving results for companies, empowering workers, and helping communities.

For those who will be at Workday Rising, please join us—and learn more about all of our portfolio companies—at the Ventures area at the Workday Experience and Expo.