September 22, 2021 — Functionly today announced an investment of AU$3.6m to further its mission to democratize organizational design. The round led by Black Nova Venture Capital and including AfterWork Ventures, Investible and Rampersand, will see Functionly further expand into the US, Europe, and AsiaPac.
Organizational design has typically been the domain of large consulting firms and multi-million dollar projects, with billions spent every year on org design and redesign. But the past couple of years has shown the need for all companies to be able to move faster and with more agility.
Patrick Brothers, Co-CEO and Co-Founder of HolonIQ, when describing his experience with Functionly said, “I could have completely replaced Boston Consulting Group with Functionly and a service layer of expensive advice”.
Functionly is a cloud software package for intelligent organizational design, enabling leaders to collaboratively design and structure the best organizations. It enables companies to build organizational charts based on what people do, rather than their job titles or functional areas making it easy to use for all executives (not just HR experts) to strategically and intentionally design their organizations.
Functionly co-founder and CEO Tim Brewer previously advised Dropbox on its distribution strategy before becoming an active investor and company advisor. Functionly was born out of a frustration he saw across multiple companies: “Every manager is struggling to make sure they have the right people, with the right skills in the right place at the right time, and to manage that dynamically as the world around us shifts. No external consultant, no matter how much you pay, can replace the need to know who’s on your team and what they are doing in real-time,” Tim Brewer said.
“More often than not the cost in delays and misalignment within a company is even more expensive than the consulting fees. I’m not saying the McKinsey’s and Deloitte’s of this world don’t have a role, but with effective software like Functionly the outcomes are 100 times faster and always available,” he added.
In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, Functionly’s paid customer base has grown by almost 900% as the urgency increases for businesses to understand and have more granular insight into their teams and personnel, amongst mid to large companies in particular. Notable users of Functionly include HealthEngine, HappyCo, and HolonIQ as well as 3000+ other organizations who are navigating organizational design, workforce optimization or mergers and acquisitions using Functionly's free offering.
The seed round brings Functionly’s total funding to date to AU$5.9 million, with new investors joining highly regarded angels and early believers; Andrew Larsen (Larson Ventures), Rayn Ong (The Signal), David Wood (amicaa, ex BoAML), Mick Liubinskas (Climate Salad, ex Muru-D), Stuart Hall (Appbot), Ben Naftzger (ex Atlassian), Stephen Yu (ex ConnectWise), Matthew Macfarlane (Yuuwa Capital), Tom Douglas (JMARK, Douglas Capital), Andrew Mackross (HappyCo), Steve Bender (EO), Laurance Escalante (VGW), Dan Stinton (The Guardian), Jonathan Jeffries (Think & Grow), Kate Taylor (Notion, ex Dropbox), Paul MacNeil (Wise-Sync), Daniel Nelson (ex Paypal), Jonathan Grant (Osano, ex Yammer, ex Zenefits), and Simon Anderson (Mission, ex DreamHost). The funding, alongside the $598k in Australian Federal Government Accelerating Commercialisation Grants, will see the company accelerate product and technology development and bring a free version of the software to market.
About Functionly
Functionly is an intelligent org chart and continuous org design software for leaders and boutique organizational development consultants to create the best places to work. Functionly was founded in 2018 by CEO, Tim Brewer, and Co-Founder, Damian Bramanis and consists of a global team who have worked with companies including Dropbox, Teamline, Auth0 & HealthEngine.
Media Contacts
Tim Brewer, Co-founder & CEO
press[@]functionly.com
https://www.functionly.com/media
Clayton Moulynox, Head of Customer
clayton[@]functionly.com
https://www.functionly.com/media
