Singapore-based startup Mercu has announced the raising of $1.6 million in seed funding from 500 Global, TEN13, Flying Fox Ventures, Archangel Ventures, XA Network, and returning investor Sequoia Capital India. The startup is focused on helping companies engage with their deskless employees more efficiently and effectively.
Deskless employees form the majority of the global workforce, but have largely been overlooked when it comes to engagement and retention tools. Mercu is designed to bridge the gap between desk-based and deskless employees with its platform, allowing companies to onboard them, communicate with them, and help increase engagement with them. Its customers include Mexican fast food chain Guzman Y Gomez and Australian company Sam Prince Hospitality Group.
The idea for the platform began when co-founders Jascha Zittel and Elliott Gibb were working at Grab. Zittel, who worked as a product manager at Grab, dealt with the communication between Grab and its millions of drivers. He found that messages sent through WhatsApp and Facebook generated a much higher engagement rate than in-app communication or emails.
The COVID-19 pandemic made it clear that the needs of deskless workers were not being met, which further motivated Zittel and Gibb to develop Mercu. The seed funding from these investors will be used to expand Mercu’s user base and hire more employees.
The platform offers companies the ability to customize their content, or pick from pre-made templates for different campaigns. Mercu also allows companies to segment employees into different roles, locations, and tenures so that the messages can be tailored to each employee. Guzman y Gomez used Mercu to automate its hiring and onboarding process, which reduced the number of no-shows to its interviews. The company also uses the platform to take the temperature of employee sentiment periodically.
Sam Prince Hospitality Group relies on Mercu to send continuous training to its deskless employees, including SOP updates, product information, and sales training.
Mercu’s product development team also plans to introduce new tools and features to help companies better connect with their employees. These include leveraging large language models such as ChatGPT to communicate with employees at scale, particularly in countries where there are hardware and data bandwidth constraints.
Overall, Mercu helps companies of all sizes to better engage their deskless employees and build more successful businesses. With the new seed funding, Mercu is now looking to expand its geographical reach and deliver greater value to its customers.
