Mesh, the social performance management startup that’s disrupting the traditional performance management reporting cycles in companies has just closed an $11M Series A. The funding round was led by RTP Global and it follows its significant achievement of 16x revenue growth in the past two years.
This funding round follows its $5.1M seed round, less than a year ago, and takes the total funds raised to $16.1M.The newly raised capital will primarily enable Mesh to focus on building a global team as it expands across the US and APAC (Asia-Pacific) markets. The startup is already working with a variety of unicorn startups including Pipefy, Drip Capital, Groww and CRED, among others.
“Last year, we backed Mesh based on the strength and the vision of the team. Since then, the team has executed really well to not only onboard stellar customers but also delight users. Leading this round was a no-brainer for us and we are thrilled for this continued partnership as Mesh builds a distinctive brand around the future of work.” RTP Global’s Madhur Makkar said in response.
Institutions hate performance management
Performance management is defined as the continuous process of identifying, measuring, and developing the performance of individuals and teams, thereby aligning performance with the organisation’s strategic goals. It should not be mistaken for performance appraisal, which is the depiction of the strengths and weaknesses of employees in a non-continuous manner, typically done just once a year.
Despite its benefits to an organisation, performance management is loathed greatly as it often turns into an irritating and pointless chore for concerned parties, characterised by endless form filling. While employees do hate the probing process of performance management, recent reports suggest that employers aren’t getting much out of it either. Recent studies are in fact highlighting that performance management is by far the most despised people process in companies, with a net promoter score of -60. A 2021 study revealed that transforming and reinventing the performance management practice is among the top 10 most impactful practices.
Sadly, a staggering 83% of companies admit they don’t use advanced people analytics from internal processes such as continuous performance management and employee experience with effectiveness. Interestingly, the companies that leverage advanced people analytics are more than 4 times more likely to engage and retain employees better than those who don’t. The firms, consequently, are almost 8 times more likely to innovate effectively and more than twice likely to exceed financial targets.
Performance management with Mesh
Mesh is offering employers a new way to work with staff. Its performance management platform aims to make it simple for managers and staff to manage goals, share feedback and consistently engage with each other. By providing a dedicated channel through which both sides can communicate in real-time, reviews can progress towards objectives, providing coaching and checkups/ meetups.
While other companies globally are forced to administer traditional performance reviews that heavily rely on top-down feedback, Mesh substitutes this unhelpful archaic process for transparency around goals, continuous feedback, and coaching conversations.
“Traditional performance management tools were built for an era where companies were slow-moving pyramids. Today, if you continue to drive only top-down performance reviews, your top talent will leave and as a business, you’re likely to get disrupted very soon! Mesh helps modern companies scale a culture of real-time performance and growth conversations across peers, managers and teams. Our vision is to enable 30 million people to achieve their full potential at work by 2030” exclaimed Gaurav Chaubey, Co-founder and CRO, Mesh.
LOVE at its core
Mesh, which was co-founded by Gaurav Chaubey, Saurabh Nangia and Rahul Singh in 2020 exists as a remote-first company that is committed to being that model organization. The US-headquartered HRTech startup comprises a team of almost 50 employees spread across four countries.
Mesh claims its decisions and actions are driven by its core values, L.O.V.E. (acting with Love, nurturing Openness, driving Velocity and thinking Exponentially). In addition to this, Mesh avails its employees benefits and offerings like equity ownership, unlimited and no questions asked time offs and learning allowances, just to name a few. With its multi-layered tech stack, the company has gained prominence across industries in Southeast Asia and the US, with upcoming plans for further expansion across APAC and the US.
