Joyous is a New Zealand workplace feedback startup founded in 2017 by brothers Mike and Phillip Carden (co-CEOs alongside Ruby Kolesky). Its core product enables managers to collect and act on open, conversational feedback across organisations rather than relying on anonymous surveys. The platform is used globally by market-leading telecommunications providers and utilities, and the company has been closing million-dollar deals over the past 12 months. Joyous reported record growth following the shift to remote work as companies sought more frequent and agile employee interactions. The recent capital will be used to support international expansion and global recruiting across New Zealand, Australia and the US. Joyous is an Auckland-based HR startup founded by brothers Mike and Philip Carden. The company provides employee feedback software focused on large enterprises where many workers are at arm’s length from headquarters. Its product enables frequent and open feedback and encourages managers and senior leaders to respond. Because the platform generates large volumes of feedback, Joyous includes an engine that extracts trends and insights from the data so leaders can understand daily employee experience and identify issues. The company raised NZ$4 million (about $3.77 million) in seed funding led by AirTree Ventures. The founders say the raise positions Joyous to pursue a “frankly massive” HR tech opportunity. Founded by brothers Mike and Philip Carden, Joyous offers a messaging-style HR platform that lets employees ask for leave, answer quick surveys, report news, swap shifts, and share photos and video in conversational flows. The product is designed to break up traditional annual processes into small, frequent interactions so workers can share work, get input, and ask for help in real time. The interface targets non-office workers and aims to simplify payroll and other arcane HR systems. Joyous already serves clients including AMP. The company plans to use its seed funding to grow its development team and launch new HR modules. Mike Carden previously founded Sonar6, which he sold to Cornerstone OnDemand in 2012; Philip returned from Paris to lead tech development.

Total raised

$15M

Funding rounds

3

Latest round

Equity

Latest activity

Sep 2021