ActivTrak’s computerized eyes can watch as you flit from Facebook to Instagram during work hours. Its software system automatically tracks your digital whereabouts on behalf of your employer. On Tuesday, the employee monitoring startup broadcasted an announcement of its own.
The Austin company raised a $50 million Series B round, which it plans to invest in developing its AI-powered employee monitoring platform, and scaling its sales and marketing operations. CEO Rita Selvaggi said the cash comes amid a period of high growth for the startup, exemplifying a recent trend of companies investing in software that allows them to monitor their newly remote workforces.
“The pandemic certainly accelerated the move to digital work, but we had already seen triple-digit growth over the last two years before COVID happened,” Selvaggi wrote in an email to Built In. “Those numbers will be even larger at the end of this year.”
Founded in 2012, ActivTrak tracks the length of time employees spend on particular websites — in some cases, taking screenshots — and then crunches that data to rank employees by their productivity. ActivTrak can also be used to block workers’ access to specific sites.
Last year, the company reported a 60 percent increase in annual recurring revenue compared to the year prior, and recorded six consecutive quarters of double-digit growth in its number of customers. The pandemic has accelerated demand for its product, according to Selvaggi, and by March of this year ActivTrak said its clients had grown by more than 200 percent compared to the same time period in 2019. The startup now counts more than 8,000 companies as customers.
The company plans to invest the Series B round in expanded integrations with third-party data sources and technology partners like Microsoft Teams and Tableau. ActivTrak also plans to upgrade its machine learning and AI systems to help companies establish productivity benchmarks, identify patterns and recommend actions to improve teams’ efficiency. The startup also plans to scale its global sales and marketing programs, with the aim of expanding its relationships with value-added resellers, distributors and managed service providers.
The 92-person company plans to double in size to 200 people by the end of next year, with plans to hire sales, marketing and product development professionals. ActivTrak is also investing in research and development — in October, the company launched the ActivTrak Workforce Productivity Lab, a global center for research on the future of work.
The Series B round brings total investment in ActivTrak to $77.5 million. Sapphire Ventures led the round, with participation from Elsewhere Partners.
ActivTrak’s investment follows a recent growth in similar software, including the Westport, Connecticut-based InterGuard, which raised $6.5 million in May; the Las Vegas-based Time Doctor, which can reportedly take a photo of an employee every 10 minutes; and the Indianapolis-based Hubstaff, which measures an employee’s keyboard strokes, mouse movements and site visits.
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