AnyPerk Closes $4.5 Million Seed Round

SAN FRANCISCO, June 23, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- AnyPerk, which brings delight and recognition back into the everyday lives of employees at companies of any size, announced today it has received an additional $3 million in funding to bring its total seed financing to $4.5 million. The company believes employee happiness is a business problem, and has created a perks platform to help its customers easily recognize and reward employees with the kinds of perks once only available to a few blue-chip organizations with deep pockets.

"We founded AnyPerk because employee happiness is undervalued. It sounds abstract, but it's not. Happy employees are twice as productive at work, but only one in five employees reports being happy at their job," said AnyPerk CEO Taro Fukuyama. "With AnyPerk, companies of every size have an easier way to attract, value and recognize their employees, at any scale. And it works. We are hearing from gigantic companies and small ones too, that these kinds of perks make a difference."

Investors in the latest round for the Y Combinator graduate include Tony Hsieh, Internet entrepreneur, venture capitalist and author of Delivering Happiness; Tien Tzuo, CEO of Zuora; and Stephen Ross, Co-founder and Chairman of Vaynor RSE Ventures and owner of Equinox Gyms, among other high-profile investors. They join original investors Andreessen-Horowitz, SV Angel and Y Combinator, as well as institutional investors like Digital Garage, Funders Club, and CyberAgent.

AnyPerk has negotiated over 400 perks for its customers, often by company request to fit their employees' lifestyles, ranging from discounted pet sitting to gym memberships to vacation discounts.

"We invested in AnyPerk because employee happiness has been fundamental to our success at Zappos," said Zach Ware, who along with Tony Hsieh invested in AnyPerk through the Vegas Tech Fund. "We think many companies intuitively understand how happiness can improve workplace culture and productivity, but have lacked a simple way to deliver it. AnyPerk has designed a way to make perks and recognition easy for benefits managers but still personal and customized to employees. It's a crucial win-win, because our experience is that happier employees usually lead to happier customers. Zappos was an AnyPerk customer before we became an investor."

AnyPerk will use the round to scale its business and continue to build on its brand promise of helping companies delight employees. Specifically, the seed round will be used to:

• Enhance the AnyPerk platform by expanding its product suite
• Increase the number of exclusive, in-demand perks
• Build a mobile app to make delivery and redemption of perks even easier
• Grow its sales, marketing and developer teams

"A year ago we were growing rapidly and wanted to offer strong employee perks to continue our momentum, but it was taking so much time to negotiate perks directly. So, we skipped the hassle and tried out AnyPerk," said Kim Otis, People Operations Business Partner at Zendesk. "One year later, we've grown to over 500 employees in the U.S. and continue to see the vast majority of our work force regularly redeeming perks through AnyPerk.  It's something our employees really love."

"When you have a workforce of thousands of people in multiple markets, of all ages and backgrounds, whom you want to reward, you appreciate the work that AnyPerk has done to not only make its platform uncomplicated and easy for a manager to use, but also customizable for the employees you want to gratify," said Rich Borges, Managing Director, Global Travel and Procurement for Cushman-Wakefield.  

AnyPerk currently has over 2,500 clients nationwide and has more than tripled the number of employees on their team in the past year. "We want all of our clients' employees to get the same delight as Christmas morning," Fukuyama added. "When people are happy to go to work and feel that their employer appreciates their contribution, it changes the culture of the whole company. We're excited to be part of that transformation."

For more information on AnyPerk, visit: http://www.anyperk.com

About AnyPerk
AnyPerk is changing the way companies large and small attract and retain employees. By delivering hundreds of perks negotiated exclusively for AnyPerk customers through an easy-to-use rewards portal, AnyPerk helps over 2,500 companies delight their employees. Founded in 2012, AnyPerk is headquartered in San Francisco and has offices in Tokyo.

For press inquires contact:
Merredith Branscombe for AnyPerk
Leap! Public Relations

phone: 720.235.7363
email: [email protected]

Susan Baldwin for AnyPerk
Leap! Public Relations

phone: 509.939.1137
email: [email protected]

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20140621/119820

SOURCE AnyPerk