Sloneek, a B2B SaaS HR-tech start-up based in the Czech Republic, announces that it has closed a EUR 3.6 million late-seeded round and is launching its operations in Italy as well with the aim of innovating the corporate approach to HR practices, automating low-skilled processes through the support of AI and enabling HR managers to pay more attention to people.
The capital increase, supported by Purple Ventures II, Venture to Future and Vision Ventures, complements the investments raised in previous years: in 2022, Sloneek raised EUR 1 million from Presto Ventures & Vision Ventures and, in 2020, EUR 350 thousand from Vision Ventures. Thanks to this capital, Sloneek, which has doubled the number of clients in one year, acquiring new ones even beyond the Czech borders, plans to enter the Italian market, as part of a broader European expansion, and triple its turnover by 2025, from one to three million euros.
“In Europe, more than half of the productive workforce is made up of Millennials and Gen Z: this opens up the possibility of making work processes more efficient, but also exposes companies to greater risks if they are unable to manage change. People represent the beating heart of the economy and our goal is to take collaboration with employees to the next level, starting in Italy, a particularly vibrant market for the start-up world,’ comments Filip Lukáč, CEO of Sloneek (pictured here with the co-founders), in the note.
Sloneek’s ambition is to identify a possible solution to the most pressing challenges facing Western European companies, namely the talent drain, falling productivity and ever-increasing costs per employee. The BenEssere Felicità Observatory, conducted on a sample of 1,000 people of different generations, showed how in Italy 76% believe that their work improves the company, but how reciprocity does not apply in terms of satisfaction of needs: 35% are not satisfied by their work and this figure, moreover, worsens as the centrality attributed to the worker decreases.
Sloneek fits into this gap with its innovative all-in-one HR and people management system: thanks to the integration of different tools, it enables HR managers to optimise all phases of the employee journey, automating the more bureaucratic procedures and saving time for the more strategic ones. With an AI-first and data-driven approach, Sloneek helps to process detailed information on teams and individuals, to easily identify untapped potential, slowdowns in personal development or long-term inefficiencies. In this way, each step of the employee journey is monitored and fine-tuned, with the aim of protecting the centrality of people, increasing their satisfaction and trust in the company, while at the same time increasing the company’s retention capacity.
“An average company spends between 30% and 40% of its personnel costs due to turnover, loss of talent and the hiring of unsuitable people, and HR managers struggle to manage these issues due to an overfull daily schedule. This is what we are trying to change by investing in the growth of staff, increasing their productivity and at the same time their satisfaction and loyalty. All thanks to the support of artificial intelligence systems that do not replace HR professionals, but rather support them in their daily activities: in this way, HR managers are relieved of unskilled work with a large margin for human error to devote themselves entirely to people,’ Lukáč continues.
The Italian market and expansion in Europe
Sloonek has taken its expertise beyond the borders of the Czech Republic and Slovakia, supporting well-known companies in European countries and the United States, such as Lindt, Volvo, Savills, Panattoni, Knight Frank or the local start-ups Carvago or Košík. The aim now is to strengthen its position in Western Europe: the first stage of this foreign expansion will be Italy, a flourishing context in terms of personnel management and the new priorities of companies: finding and retaining the best talent, guaranteeing them not only satisfactory employment and an adequate salary, but also effective management of all aspects of the employment journey.
“Sloneek enables HR professionals to develop people in companies and let technology take care of administration using artificial intelligence tools. Behind the whole project is a well-coordinated team of experienced professionals who share a clear vision,’ explains Jan Davídek, partner at Purple Ventures.
“Sloneek is the ideal start-up due to its flexibility and speed. Working closely together during the investment, we were able to experience knowledgeable management, a sophisticated business plan and a clear strategy applied to entering new markets,’ adds Martin Banský, Vice President and Head of Investments at Future Fund. ‘We are confident that Sloneek will be successful on the international market.
“Since we invested in Sloneek, the start-up has grown rapidly thanks to a great product and a structured team. It manages to keep customer acquisition costs low and customer retention high. In addition, more and more companies have already started using a hybrid mode that brings challenges in onboarding, day-to-day operations or long-term employee engagement, which is why many companies consider Sloneek an essential part of their SaaS management toolset,” says Přemysl Rubeš, managing partner and founder of Presto Ventures.
“In addition to the expansion in Italy, we are also focusing on technological development: we will introduce a technologically advanced platform that will allow an in-depth analysis of human potential, thanks to people analytics. This will make it possible to work with reporting not only for HR managers, but also for CEOs and CFOs. This is a further tool to achieve our great ambition of tripling turnover. The goal, then, is to specialise in human resources automation and analysis, normalising the use of AI in an area that still has great untapped potential,’ concludes Lukáč.
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