STARTUP TaskHuman RAISES $20M TO EXPAND ITS VIRTUAL COACHING PLATFORM
A professional development startup TaskHuman which focuses on coaching has announced that it raised $20 million in Series B funding led by Madrona, the round also witnessed the participation of RingCentral Ventures, Impact Venture, Sure Ventures, PeopleTech Angels, USVP, Propel(x), Gaingels and Zoom Ventures.
Founded in 2017, TaskHuman was co-founded by ‘Daniel Mazzella’ and Swaminathan, with the goal of connecting users with specialists on topics related to their personal and professional lives. Meanwhile, Mazzella was a system admin at Stamps.com, while Swaminathan was previously a program and logistics manager at Dell and VP of software solutions at SanDisk, a source familiar with the matter has confirmed. Noting that the two were at Wizr, a startup developing AI systems to analyze security camera footage.
“When it comes to learning and personal development, no amount of generic articles or watching pre-recorded video [can replace] a real person with experience in a given area. Creating TaskHuman was our response to solve this challenge. We started by offering foundational needs, including health and wellness, physical fitness, mental, spiritual, emotional wellbeing, and more. Since then, we’ve continued to expand and support the entire needs of an individual for personal and professional growth, like financial wellbeing, sales, and leadership coaching, pet training, travel planning, and more”, Swaminathan stated.
The fresh fund brings the company’s total raised to $35 million, which will be injected into product development, marketing, and sales efforts. However, the company claims to have a network of over 1,000 “coaches” across about 50 markets, with each specializing in distinctive areas. An AI-powered search feature lets users search for topics and coaches in natural language, while a recommendation engine attempts to personalize the browsing experience by suggesting, for instance, similar coaches based on past sessions.
“TaskHuman has a direct relationship with each coach, and we pay them according to the terms of our relationship for their coaching contributions. They are all contractors globally”. TaskHuman’s co-founder Swaminathan cited regarding coaching payment structure.
As for the coaching, users are expected to buy access to the TaskHuman network with “TaskHuman minutes”, which can be applied to a chat session with any specialist or topic. Alternatively, companies can also subscribe to TaskHuman in order to offer unlimited access to their employees as well as in-app content that includes group sessions.
Potential competitors in the crowded e-learning space for the subject market include CoachHub, BetterUp, and Torch. Startup TaskHuman co-founder Swaminathan argued that his company offers a broader scope, by offering superior access to specialists because it doesn’t require scheduling sessions in advance.
“We have found that the pandemic really allowed people to go beyond their comfort zones and embrace video technologies like TaskHuman, Zoom, RingCentral, and others. We feel a need to accelerate our mission during these difficult times to help people in both their personal and professional lives and we feel an urgency to combat the current mental health crisis and Great Resignation culture by fulfilling the dire craving for 1:1, personalized engagement for personal and professional growth”. Swaminathan made clear:
The company’s customers include Dr. Scholl’s, Zoom, RingCentral, and Purdue University among others. However, the co-founder also claimed that the company is laser-focused on global expansion and scaling its network of coaches.
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