- Y Combinator graduate (winter 2019) WorkClout made a couple of major announcements
Y Combinator graduate (winter 2019) WorkClout made a couple of major announcements. The company revealed it shifted its focus from manufacturing automation to manufacturing performance support.
WorkClout also revealed it raised a $2.3 million seed round of funding. This funding round was led by Spider Capital with participation from Y Combinator, Liquid 2, Soma Capital, Pioneer Fund, Mehta Ventures, and several individual investors.
Why did WorkClout pivot? After the company launched, it focused on helping manufacturers drive efficiencies. However, WorkClout founder and CEO Arjun Patel said that there was a ceiling on how much efficiency they could provide in terms of software. So Patel conducted a survey of 124 manufacturers and learned that they needed help training front-line workers.
“We found that most of the companies were saying that employees are the biggest challenge that they have to face in terms of how to engage them better or how to empower them better, because ultimately they realize people, even if there is automation, are still the driving force for a lot of sectors,” said Patel via TechCrunch.
At the end of 2019, the company launched a new tool for helping customers training employees for front-line tasks. The training can be done through a phone or tablet. Plus workers can communicate with each other if they have questions. And managers can see how workers are doing with the training process.
