The Workplace Accelerator, powered by Veremark, has kickstarted a 16-week operations-focused bootcamp with advice and mentorship from experts which would include eight of most exciting new startups.

The participating businesses would form a diverse group of a second cohort, hailing from all over the world (India, Indonesia, UAE, UK, France, Ukraine, Spain and Singapore) while five have female co/founders. 

They represent the top 3% of applicants to the programme and were successful after undergoing a tough application process with multiple interview stages and founder psychometric tests. 

With the pandemic having accelerated digitisation and innovation in the workplace, HR tech and worktech are booming, with almost US$14billion invested in the year to Q3 2021. 

The eight ventures selected to take part are:

Vani 

An AI / human coaching platform to improve communication fitness focused on professional English speakers. Based on gradings by managers, it delivers on average a 40% improvement on the participants' professional communications skills after the programme.

Website - www.vani.coach

Hav.

An employee wellness app that helps teams stay active and rewards them with perks and benefits to improve productivity and engagement.

Website - http://www.hav.life

Diversely

An integrated recruitment aid to measure, benchmark and track your workforce diversity and then improve the diversity of your hiring pipeline through inclusive hiring tools and practices.

Website - https://www.diversely.io/

SpaceBands

Launched during the pandemic as a means for companies to help track social distancing within the office, this startup now provides a health and safety ecosystem via wearable tech to ensure that all workplaces are safe workplaces and fully compliant with new regulations.

Website - www.spacebands.co.uk

Zeeo

A virtual metaverse for co-working and events in the new age of remote. Participants can adopt engaging avatars in this immersive ‘social video game’ for virtual conferencing and remote learning, as well as customise and inhabit virtual office environments.

Website - www.zeeon.space

Knack 

An executive coaching and leadership app that lets companies launch and manage their own internal coaching and mentoring programmes (while accounting for region-specific cultural differences) and tap into a network of vetted expert coaches.

Website - www.knacklab.co

NessPay

An earned wage allowance platform focused on helping to improve financial wellness by enabling employees to receive their salary earlier in the month. It improves their ability to improve their financial health as well as minimising the administrative burden of an old fashioned payroll system.

Website - www.nesspay.co

niikiis

More than just an HR system, niikiis is focused on driving engagement, reducing manual workflows and ensuring greater productivity both in companies and HR teams. Its social wall, AI chatbot and workflow automation, along with a host of other features, can save hours per employee whilst ensuring a better overall experience, too.

Website - www.niikiis.com

The programme will see the founders pick their own advisory panel of six experts from a pool of operating partners and work with them over the period. They can also choose who they want to meet from the programme’s network of more than 250 senior HR leaders. The programme ends with the companies meeting worktech-focused investors from all over the world.

Workplace Accelerator launched mid-pandemic and was originally focused on South Asian ventures, with the first cohort going on to raise more than US$4M in funding from the programme’s mentor network and external investors. 

The programme was established by Daniel Callaghan, CEO and co-founder of Veremark, the global pre-employment screening HR tech, and sponsored by The Nudge Group.

Daniel Callaghan, CEO and co-founder of Veremark, said, “HR tech is a US$600billion per year industry and has the power to be a force for good as businesses negotiate a rapidly evolving workplace. We want to help companies find simplicity and have confidence in all their people processes, be they remote, hybrid or onsite. 

He also added that the workplace accelerator has already shown that industry leaders want to help early-stage ventures with a clear impact on the business landscape and, with some hands-on support, he believes that this cohort can achieve great things.

Vani was also a partner at People Matters TechHR India 2021.