In the past few days, several companies have made announcements on acquiring startups. Here’s the latest on Canada’s movers and shakers.
Rise People acquires Hazel
Vancouver-based Rise People, which offers a suite of HR tools like employee engagement, payroll, and benefits, has acquired San Francisco-based Hazel. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Founded in 2016, Hazel provides virtual coaching through Slack. Questions sent to employees are personalized based on hundreds of data points, which managers can then review to see who needs support. The tool provides managers with an action plan with targeted learnings to ensure concerns are being addressed.
“The natural alignment between Rise and Hazel enables us to bring an increasingly sophisticated use of data across the employee lifecycle to drive continuous performance improvement, boost talent retention, and create a purposeful employee experience,” said Wisam Abdulla, CEO of Hazel.
Julie Bevacqua, Rise’s chief revenue officer, said the acquisition connects Rise’s people management tool with Hazel’s digital coaching, allowing Rise to help its customers build a culture of engagement through consistent feedback.
“As the balance of power in the modern workplace shifts towards employees, attracting, engaging and retaining high-performing talent is more of a challenge for our customers than ever,” said Bevacqua.
Tim Abdulla, co-founder of Hazel, has joined Rise as its chief technology officer.
“With his proven track record with the last 8 years as CTO in HR tech coupled with exceptional technical talent and business acumen, Tim will be instrumental in guiding the development and execution of our one-of-a-kind people management platform strategy,” said Bevacqua. “His expertise in employee engagement and real-time people analytics will be key drivers in not only keeping Rise’s momentum, but also taking it to the next level.”
AudienceView acquires UniversityTickets
Toronto-based AudienceView, which produces e-commerce software for events and entertainment organizations, has acquired New York-based UniversityTickets, a ticketing and event management solution built for higher education campuses and college athletics. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
“We are extremely proud of the company we’ve built over the past 20 years of UniversityTickets, but we are now ready to take it to the next level,” said Gordon Capreol, co-founder of UniversityTickets. “The momentum that AudienceView has created over the past few years gave us confidence that they were the right organization to whom we can entrust our clients as we move forward.”
With this acquisition, AudienceView is adding to its portfolio 900 educational institutions, processing more than 20 million tickets per year.
“Our success in driving innovation and targeted solutions throughout the live event industry continues with the addition of UniversityTickets in the higher education space,” said Mark Fowlie, CEO of AudienceView. “We understand the complex needs that come with running events on a campus and the need to provide integrated tools for students, faculty, alumni and other key groups that support the higher education mission. We’re thrilled with how this acquisition strengthens our product portfolio.”
This marks AudienceView’s third acquisition in the past couple years. In 2017, AudienceView acquired TheaterMania, which served tickets for live theatre and performing arts, and more recently acquired Vendini, which provided ticketing and box offices solutions.
Photo via Unsplash.