PepTalk, founded by Bernard and James Brogan and headquartered in Dublin, is the world’s first Team Experience (TX)™ platform provider. It has completed a €3M funding round led by Venture Wave Capital.
The funding will be used to scale the company in the USA. CEO James Brogan will relocate to their newly opened New York office to serve an increasing market demand amongst North American customers.
The latest round of funding was led by Venturewave Capital, an impact investment fund headquartered in Ireland, led by Alan Foy, Brian Martin and Kieran McLoughlin. The fund works with high-growth companies to invest and build global ‘technology for good’ that will deliver real societal benefits. Enterprise Ireland and UK-based VC company Haatch also support Peptalk.
PepTalk currently has 23 full-time employees, with offices in Dublin, London, and the new office in New York City. The company expects to double its growth over the next 12 months and hire 12 additional members across sales, marketing, and technology.
The software company has experienced substantial growth in recent years, reaching over 50,000 employees across four continents and winning the addition of a significant number of global multi-year partnerships with blue chip clients, including Verizon, PayPal and Elavon. In recognition of PepTalk’s rapid growth, the company was recently recognized as part of Deloitte’s Fast Tech 50 as one of the fastest-growing technology companies in Ireland.
Founded in late 2017, Peptalk has developed what is described as the world’s first Team Experience (TX)™ platform, underpinned by cutting-edge behavioural psychology and academic research. The platform helps organizations, managers, and employees identify and develop habits and behaviours to bring leaders and their teams together and address ongoing challenges with connection, engagement, and productivity in the modern workplace.
Speaking about the announcement, PepTalk’s CEO, James Brogan, commented, “We are delighted to partner with Venturewave for our global expansion into the USA. We are a mission-driven business, and finding an investor that aligns strongly with our values is unique. We believe this partnership has the potential to transform our business, and we’re thrilled to be working with Alan, Brian, Kieran and the wider global advisory council on our USA expansion in 2023.”
Welcoming the news, Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Leo Varadkar TD said: “It’s great to see an Irish start-up doing so well and experiencing strong growth, with plans underway to grow its workforce over the next 12 months. The opening of the new base in the US provides a great opportunity to introduce and embed their unique product offering amongst blue-chip companies in global markets. It is a massive step forward on their growth journey. I wish PepTalk the best for the year ahead and look forward to seeing many more years of growth and workforce expansion.”
Venturewave Managing Partner Brian Martin, who will join the Peptalk board, said: “We believe the space Peptalk is in is inspiring and are delighted to work with James and Bernard as they grow the business globally. There is an increasing realization of the correlation between employee well-being, diversity and engagement with organizational performance. PepTalk has built a scalable platform that makes it easier for enterprise leaders to deliver this. As part of our investment, the founders have set out a series of impact goals they will aim to achieve and report upon.”
Donnchadh Cullinan, Head of ICT HPSU, Enterprise Ireland, said: “Enterprise Ireland has worked closely with Peptalk since its establishment, and it is exciting to see this highly innovative company go from strength to strength. The expansion of its US base and the announcement of the creation of these new jobs across the three locations is a testament to the ambition and potential of the team. Enterprise Ireland looks forward to supporting Peptalk as it scales further and expands its global market reach.
