Paris-based tech startup Elevo raises $6.9M to help companies go beyond the annual performance appraisal interview and transform the employee experience

Most employees hate the annual performance evaluations. 66% of the employees were strongly dissatisfied with the performance evaluations they received in their organizations, according to a piece published in Harvard Business Review, citing a survey of Fortune 1,000 companies done by the Corporate Executive Board (CEB). What’s even more striking is that 65% of the employees believed that performance evaluations were not even relevant to their jobs.

For many years, the annual performance appraisal interviews are often seen as an administrative test, a cumbersome and complicated process that does not always enhance the employee and his career.

Now one tech startup is on a mission to reinvent the employee experience and allow companies to transform their people strategy by facilitating performance management, employee engagement, and development in a single solution.

Enter Elevo, a Paris-based tech startup that allows people leaders to set up engaging performance campaigns throughout the year, define and manage objectives, create inspiring career paths for employees, and much more. Elevo is a people management platform that increases the employee experience and enables people leaders to develop engaged & high-performing teams

Today, Elevo announced it has raised €6M ($6.9M) in funding to accelerate product development and continuing to scale its team to meet ambitious product goals. The round was led by Elaia, a European top-tier VC firm with a strong tech DNA. Elevo had already raised €1M from Business Angels in 2019.

Elevo founders, Thibault Vilon (ex Apple & Google) and Etienne le Scaon (ex-Work4 and Criteo), started the company in 2017 after they came up with the idea of ​​developing a platform that allows HR teams to organize, administer and follow assessment interviews. Fast forward four years later, Elevo has already attracted many leading companies. Its customers include Audika, Aircall, BlaBlaCar, Groupe Figaro, Labeyrie, Jellyfish, JCDecaux, Picard, and Pennylane. Today, Elevo currently has nearly 30 employees and counting.

“Elevo improves the employee experience by creating a link between the company and the employee, in order to improve collective performance in organizations. The rise of telecommuting and remote management has shown how critical this topic is to the life of companies, especially in a “hybrid” world of work. We have proven ourselves over the past 4 years with satisfied customers, and now want to move up a gear to make the world of work more human.” says Etienne Le Scaon, co-founder and CEO of Elevo.

Since its launch in 2018, Elevo has gained the trust of business angels specializing in cloud software and HR, such as Patrick Bertrand (ex-CEO of Cegid), Philippe Gluntz (ex-Chairman Europe ADP) or Marc Veyron (ex-HRD Carrefour Supermarkets and CapGemini Services). They all identified Elevo’s unique positioning in its market and its potential.

“With Elevo, we have revamped our annual interview campaigns. The platform, adapted to our practices and our managerial culture, allows us to achieve +90% participation rate and, above all, to collect information that is essential for managing our talent development strategy and the internal mobility of our employees, which is a crucial focus for us”. Thierry Raulin, Director of Human Resources and International HR Projects at JC Decaux.