Singapore-based diversity-focused startup Diversely.io announced today that it has raised US$200,000 in a pre-seed funding round that drew eight angel investors including Rob Bryson, founder of WeNetwork and ex-MD of Robert Walters Singapore.

Diversely.io was founded in mid-2020 by Hayley Bakker and Helen McGuire (top, left to right) with the objective of removing bias from the hiring process through technology. Bakker, the Chief Product Officer, and McGuire, the CEO. are serial entrepreneurs with a combined 25 years of experience in D&I, technology, HR, and communications, and are both long-standing advocates of workplace D&I.

Their new startup is currently working on an end-to-end HR platform that uses AI tools to improve employers' outreach to under-represented groups, such as by eliminating bias in job description language, analyzing the diversity of candidates who are attracted, shortlisted, and interviewed, or even assessing how well new hires contribute to an organization's D&I targets.

McGuire said: “Our frustration around the lack of impactful, globally scale-able solutions that drive to the heart of workplace diversity has been our inspiration. Despite a global pandemic, we have now raised US$200k from eight international Angel Investors to build an affordable, accessible means for businesses everywhere to automate, manage, track and improve their workplace diversity through hiring tools, analytics and just-in-time training.”

There is quite a market for those tools, with the startup's own research showing that 85 percent of its clients want to improve workplace diversity and 65 percent are spending time and money on doing so—but only 20 percent are achieving any results and even fewer are able to link those results with business impact.

Bryson commented: “Throughout my career I have seen this topic much debated but with limited progress. In these rapidly changing times it is even more important to reach out to all and give everyone a fair chance, we all have an obligation to ensure no one is left behind and I think Diversely is building a very exciting platform to help achieve this ambitious aim.”

Diversely.io is now in beta and will launch officially in the second quarter of 2021.