Bites, a specialist in the employee communications and training industry, has raised USD5 million a seed funding round.
With Bites, anyone within an organisation can create and distribute professional, social-media-styled videos and content without having to download special software or new applications to their phones. While remaining remote, managers receive feedback through discussion boards and have access to robust analytics data showing engagement and completion rates.
The funding round was led by Vertex Ventures Israel, an Israeli venture capital firm. Surround Ventures, a US-Israeli VC specialising in early-stage media and eCommerce startups, Oryzn Capital, an Israeli venture focused on early-stage investments, Lyra Ventures, an ASEAN VC that invests in retail technology companies, and J-Ventures, a Silicon Valley-based fund, invested in the company as well.
“Bites is reinventing employee communications by leveraging concepts from social media and training to create a powerful platform designed for today’s distributed and remote workforce,” says Aviad Ariel, General Partner at Vertex Ventures Israel. “We believe Bites is the answer to one of the biggest challenges organisations face relating to communications and training by enabling easy creation, distribution, and consumption of highly engaging content while moving away from long forms and complex implementation processes of new software.”
Bites boosts engagement and retention over existing learning management systems (LMS) by offering compelling training content coupled with follow-up activities designed to reinforce learning. The flexible nature of the platform enables distributed and remote workforces to stay current on company practices, policies, and products without the need to install or adopt new apps or tools.
Bites is ideal for conducting remote training, reaching deskless employees wherever they are located while saving time and money. The company has experienced healthy growth, with over 500 customers using the system. When a global fashion eyewear retailer began using the system to train employees, Bites allowed them to replace all their standard onboarding and advanced training with engaging video training units. As a result, training was more consistent and efficient, and corporate headquarters had more control over the way its employees learned things. Bites enabled them to rapidly produce social-media-style content, share it on the channels they’re most attentive to (such as SMS, WhatsApp, Messenger, etc.), and reach their frontline employees while reaching business goals quickly without information gaps. In their experience, Bites has been the only tool that allowed them to effectively reach deskless employees.
Bites was founded by Eran Heffetz, Tal Nagler Almog, and Hagai Horovitz. The co-founders bring first-hand experience and best practices from over 30 years of combined experience in training and technology.
“We are thrilled our investors recognise the value our offering brings to the world of employee communications and are confident that we are the right team to bring this dream to fruition,” says Eran Heffetz, CEO at Bites. “This money raised will support our R&D, sales, and marketing efforts, as we execute on our aggressive go-to-market plans by approaching retailers, consumer goods companies, healthcare providers, and other verticals. Bites is leading a revolution, enabling distributed workforces to remain current through highly engaging, trackable content.”
