Search for...

The Romanian HR Software Nestor Raises $2M for Its People Intelligence Platform

HR software
Image credit: Raluca and Bogdan Apostol, co-founders of Nestor
, ~

 

  • Nestor, the people intelligence platform that helps hybrid organizations engage, develop and retain talent, raises a $2M seed round led by Eleven Ventures. The round is joined by Underline Ventures and some San Francisco-based angel investors. 
  • The investment follows the increased B2B product adoption rate of Nestor, which reached 98%, and the joining of a new advisor – UiPath’s Chief Culture Officer, Andreea Baciu. 
  • With the fresh capital, Nestor plans to grow its sales and customer success teams, accelerate its expansion in the newly entered US and Latin America markets, and invest in more product development. 

 

“Every employee is unique. We envision a world where every employee receives the right opportunity at the right time to continually learn and improve the skills that will help them succeed. We help organizations make an impact on each employee’s development and enable HR leaders to build agile people strategies that move beyond the traditional job approach by placing skills at the front and center of their talent operations,” Bogdan Apostol, CEO and co-founder of Nestor, comments on the investment. 

Founded in 2018 by Raluca and Bogdan Apostol, Nestor is a Romanian-born HR software startup headquartered in San Fransisco, that strives to deliver 50% more employee performance by intertwining people with technology. The team has built a smart coaching tool that allows organizations to build leadership-driven company culture. Nestor’s People Intelligence Platform provides managers with insights into the performance of their team members. As of today, more than 10K+ employees around the world are using the product. 

“Bogdan and his team are reimagining the multi-billion dollar people analytics and talent software market by offering workforce visibility over non-linear assets such as employee skills & capabilities, engagement, performance, culture, and career mobility in an effortless and codified way. We are thrilled to join Nestor’s journey to deliver an end-to-end people intelligence platform to support organizations worldwide,” Vassil Terziev, Managing Partner of Eleven Ventures, says.

Read more:  Croatian Robotiq.ai aims to develop the digital workforce of the future with fresh €900K

Bogdan Iordache, General Partner at Underline Ventures, adds that he has been knowing the founding team of Nestor for a long time and will help them identify the best partners to scale globally with. 

Organizational talent management reimagined

The co-founders of Nestor, Raluca and Bogdan Apostol came up with the idea of building HR software for organizational agility and resilience based on their previous experience in leading teams. Bogdan, who is the CEO od Nestor, has a decade of experience in Software Engineering, while Raluca, in the CPO role, brings in experience in People Coaching.

In 2018 the team participated in season 18 of Y Combinator, the US startup program known for investing in companies like Airbnb and Dropbox. Regionally, the startup was part of the Orange Fab accelerator in Romania and ended up doing an organizational-wide deployment of its solutions for team collaboration in Orange. 

In essence, Nestor’s HR software combines employee engagement, performance management, and development planning with a skills-based approach. The software uses predictive analytics and nudging automation to help businesses develop and retain talent.

By creating personal talent profiles, Nestor allows employees to choose the best vertical or horizontal career development paths based on both their interests and the needs of the organization. Thus, each employee is empowered to take ownership of their own development, access new growth opportunities, and participate in cross-functional organizational initiatives.

Fueling expansion to Latin America and the US

Today, Nestor is trusted by HR managers in mid-to-large organizations across Europe, North America, and Latin America, including Fortune 500 companies. The new seed funding round will enable Nestor to grow its sales and customer success teams as well as to rev its expansion in the US and Latin America. 

The startup will invest in its product innovation as it plans to launch its smart career pathing module. This module would allow employees to easily explore what are the various career paths they can take and what skills they need to acquire in order to successfully achieve their career goals. 

Read more:  This Christmas, Walmart Features STEM Learning Toys From Croatian Edtech CircuitMess

 

Thank you for reading The Recursive!

Over 1 million people from all over the world have learned about the tech ecosystem in Central and Eastern Europe thanks to The Recursive. In order to keep our content free for everyone, we need your help. If you believe what we do is important and have the means to do so, support us in giving a voice to Central and Eastern Europe with as little as €7. Thank you!

DONATE Keep reading this article

Help us grow the emerging innovation hubs in Central and Eastern Europe

Every single contribution of yours helps us guarantee our independence and sustainable future. With your financial support, we can keep on providing constructive reporting on the developments in the region, give even more global visibility to our ecosystem, and educate the next generation of innovation journalists and content creators.

Find out more about how your donation could help us shape the story of the CEE entrepreneurial ecosystem!

One-time donation

You can also support The Recursive’s mission with a pick-any-amount, one-time donation. 👍

Elena is an Innovation Reporter at The Recursive, an online media dedicated to the emerging tech and startup ecosystems in Southeast Europe. She is keen on sharing the innovation stories that shape the regional ecosystem and has a great interest in fintech, IoT, and biotech startups. Elena is currently finishing her Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration and Political Science at the American University in Bulgaria.