NEW YORK and TEL AVIV, Israel — March 10, 2021 — Centrical today announced the closing of a $32 million funding round led by Intel Capital, a new investor, and JVP, the company’s largest shareholder. The round also included participation from C4 Ventures and Citi Ventures, also new investors, as well as existing investors Aleph, CE Ventures, La Maison Compagnie d’Investissment and 2B Angels. The company will use this investment to accelerate market engagement, enter new markets, and enhance customer value by the creation of additional solutions attuned to the needs of organizations and their employees who operate in an increasingly hybrid work environment.
In the midst of COVID-19 pandemic Centrical, formerly known as GamEffective, announced several new modules to its Employee-Centric Success Platform, including Augmented People Intelligence, which combines AI-powered analytics with the creative and empathetic characteristics of human intelligence, adaptive coaching tools, employee engagement, and well-being capabilities – all intended to better enable employees to feel part of their organizations, as well as interact, train, and perform in hybrid workplaces.
“Centrical is liberating and revolutionizing the lives and performance of frontline employees in large organizations. So often, these key employees are burned out, feel they’re not getting the right attention, don’t understand the goals of the organization, and do not receive sufficient training,” said Erel Margalit, JVP’s Founder & Executive Chairman who becomes Centrical’s Board Chairman. “With the Centrical platform, employees are enabled to thrive by working together while simultaneously creating a language by which their managers are able to empower and support them, aligning their personal goals within the framework of the larger objectives and milestones of the organization. With so many employees working from home these days, this sense of connection is needed now more than ever, as you simply cannot win a game alone: passing, blocking and screening are all necessary actions for the team if they’re going to score and win the game. And that is the Centrical breakthrough, making this company a category leader.”
Centrical saw 6X growth in its usage by customer employees during 2020, allowing them to fulfill the key roles they play in the success of their companies. Whether used by a Verizon store manager or a British Telecom customer service representative, Centrical’s Employee-Centric Success Platform holistically navigates employees, turn-by-turn, to success and optimizes organizations’ investments in employees. It gives employees an AI-powered, personalized, and gamified experience that unifies real-time performance management, continuous feedback, microlearning, and employee engagement while supporting managers with interactive coaching and managerial tools.
“Intel Capital invested in Centrical because we believe the company’s innovative augmented people intelligence platform addresses the needs of companies and employees operating in today’s global, hybrid workplace. Through on-going innovation and expansion of its Employee-centric Success Platform, Centrical can disrupt many of the world’s largest enterprises and help drive successful business outcomes,” said Trina Van Pelt, an Intel Capital Vice President and Senior Managing Director.
Success for the technology has been recorded by a number of market leaders employing Centrical. In particular, Microsoft reported a 10% increase in the productivity of its contact center advocates, and a reduction of 12% in short-term absenteeism, thanks to advocates reporting they feel more empowered and engaged. Furthermore, in internal surveys , 89% of Microsoft’s advocates acknowledged being well informed of, and able to apply in their work, training and knowledge updates delivered by the platform. Cellular Sales, Verizon’s Largest Authorized Retailer , experienced an increase of 53% in new handset sales, and 2X more combo-sales of ancillary products, leading to overall higher revenues from each client. This was all thanks to the platforms advanced gamification and engagement tools and their ability to help each seller be more successful and efficient.
“Over the prior eleven months, customer usage of the Centrical platform grew by more than 500%. That’s a clear indication Centrical is key to forming performance-driven cultures in businesses,” said Gal Rimon, Centrical’s Founder & CEO. “Centrical will dominate the Employee-Centric Success category because of our ability to understand the role employees play in an enterprise, and offer the right way to engage them to create a win-win engagement. This investment lets us bring an even more compelling set of solutions to more organizations to make employees the center of their business success.”
Centrical will also be expanding its portfolio of vertical market solutions and new products aimed at aiding achievement of high-level corporate goals, crisis management, and other business agility-related activities.
About JVP
JVP founded in 1993 by Dr. Erel Margalit, is an internationally renowned VC fund. JVP, now in the final stages of raising its tenth fund, manages both early stage and later stage investment vehicles targeting the next big international market leaders to come out of Israel, the US, and Europe, and has been listed numerous times by Preqin, and other rankings, as one of the top-ten consistently performing VC firms worldwide. Over the years JVP has built over 150 companies, leveraging a broad network of partners and market expertise to help companies become global market leaders. Among the pioneering firms of the Israeli VC industry, JVP has been instrumental in building some of the world’s largest companies to emerge, facilitating numerous IPOs on NASDAQ, including CyberArk Software ($4.7 billion mkt. cap.), QLIK Technologies (then $4 billion mkt. cap.) as well as many large industry sales. Over the past decade JVP has spearheaded the creation of international Centers of Excellence, including the AI and Media center in Jerusalem, the Cyber center in Beer Sheva, the Foodtech and Agritech center in the Galilee, the International Cyber and FinTech center in NYC, in partnership with NYC/EDC and the leading universities of the city. For more information on JVP, visit jvpvc.com, follow us on Twitter: @JerusalemVenturePartners
About Intel Capital
Intel Capital invests in innovative startups targeting cloud and AI infrastructure, 5G, edge, autonomy, cybersecurity, client and gaming, enterprise applications, silicon design and manufacturing, and a wide range of other disruptive technologies. Since 1991, Intel Capital has invested US$13.3 billion in more than 1,595 companies worldwide, and 707 portfolio companies have gone public or participated in a merger. For more information on what makes Intel Capital one of the world’s most powerful venture capital firms, visit www.intelcapital.com or follow @Intelcapital.
About Centrical
Centrical’s Employee-Centric Success platform helps companies motivate employees to exceed their own KPIs. It does this by blending advanced gamification with personalized microlearning and real-time employee performance management as well as adaptive coaching tools, and well-being strategies. Centrical’s platform produces improvements like +12% employee productivity, +20% average deal values, +30% faster onboarding, and +12% customer satisfaction KPI for multinational enterprises like British Telecom, Microsoft, Novartis, Synchrony Financial, and Teleperformance, among others. An SAP partner, Centrical technology easily integrates with SAP® SuccessFactors® Learning. The company has offices in New York, London, and Ra’anana, Israel. For more information please visit www.centrical.com.
