Female founded Enterprise Tech startup raises funding to rewrite the language of work
Female founded Enterprise Tech startup raises funding to rewrite the language of work
UK-based Deployed today announced it has raised $4M in a seed funding round co-led by Amrock Ventures and M12 Microsoft Ventures, with participation from Portfolio Ventures, Mayfield Fund, HERmesa, and Angel Academe. Launched in 2020 by Emma Rees (CEO), Kayleigh Kuptz (COO) and Jamie Gannaway (CPO) with two government grants, Deployed is the only scoping platform that makes it simple to write, edit, and publish Statements of Work.
While trillions of dollars are spent on contractually scoped projects every year, 65% of projects fail to meet original objectives and 1 in 10 end in legal or payment disputes. Deployed’s goal is to make projects clearer and more successful by reinventing the copy pasted patchwork of email, Word and Excel processes involved in writing, agreeing, and signing contracted work.
Deployed offers a single platform where requestors of services, procurement, legal and compliance teams can navigate and collaborate on the request to signature workflow via an easy-to-use editor interface. This means that C-suite leaders, who have watched their project portfolio costs inflate by 20% since Covid, yet consistently miss the time, budget or quality metrics promised at the start of projects, can now understand the benefits their projects deliver, and 10x their success by solving poor project definition up front.
In 2020, the company won the global Melinda Gates Female Founders award for enterprise technology.
Deployed will use its latest round of funding to further feature development, apply assisted writing and generative AI, and expand new and existing enterprise clients and boost hires. The company currently works with large enterprise clients including Randstad Sourceright, Talent Solutions TAPFIN and Roche.
Emma Rees, CEO and co-founder of Deployed, an outsider to the corporate world who went from hairdressing to start-up over a 20 year career, said: “It’s empowering to be part of the “2% of the 2%” (only 2% of VC investment goes to majority female founders and of that, less than 2% is in Enterprise SaaS). With most corporate work now globally distributed, project based and delivered by third parties, we need a new way to engage for services. We started Deployed to help everyone define work better and align on clear objectives early on”.
Hugo Chardon, co-Founder of Amrock Ventures, said: “I was taken from the very first pitch that this was solving a problem that has been slipping through the gaps of corporate governance. It was very clear that the founding team, Emma, Kayleigh, and Jamie, were a winning one, bringing deep expertise and a balanced mindset.”
“Deployed is a category defining start up that reimagines the Enterprise Resource Planning stack to stop project failure from the start. We are delighted to support the Deployed team and follow on with funding,” said Peter Berg, Managing Partner at M12.
James Pringle, VC at Portfolio Ventures says “Our investment in Deployed was based on their strong product-market fit, notable growth trajectory, and their focus on addressing an underserved market segment.”
A Statement of Work (SoW) is a formal document that outlines the specific tasks, deliverables, and timelines for a project, ensuring all parties have a clear understanding of the work to be performed.
Seed funding is the initial capital raised by a startup to develop its business idea, often provided by angel investors or venture capitalists to cover early operational costs.
Generative AI refers to algorithms that can create new content, such as text, images, or music, based on training data, often used to enhance productivity and creativity in various fields.
Project definition involves outlining the objectives, scope, and deliverables of a project, which helps in aligning stakeholders and ensuring successful project execution.
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