We’ve got some pretty exciting news to share. We are proud (and super pleased) to announce that we have raised CAD$55 million to support us on our journey of simplifying how you work. This funding is the result of our recently-closed Series A round of financing, a funding round that was led by White Star Capital and OMERS Ventures.
We will use this significant investment to strengthen and enhance our Hybrid Automation platform, add even more quality to our expanding team, and make it even easier for organizations of all sizes to get work done.
The total financing includes CAD$12.5 million in funding from our original seed investors Real Ventures and Desjardins Capital. Over the course of fundraising, several prominent angel investors have also supported us significantly. This list includes Sharon Rowlands (CEO at Web.com), Cherif Habib (CEO at Dialogue Health), Mark Macleod (former CFO at Shopify), Charlie Songhurst (former Head of Strategy at Microsoft), and Michael Litt (CEO at Vidyard). It goes without saying that we are thrilled to be working with such experienced and ambitious investors in 2022 and beyond.
“The scale of the investment we’ve received at this early stage from highly respected investors is a tremendous validation of the level of ambition and size of the opportunity we’re going after,” says Mohannad El-Barachi, our Co-Founder and CEO.
We’re also very excited to share that we have added 4 senior executives to our team who bring a wealth of experience, expertise, and knowledge with them.
Again, we are humbled and grateful for this endorsement and look forward to continuing to help organizations dramatically scale the delivery of their work without sacrificing quality or the all-important human touch.
What makes us different
If you’re reading this then you probably don’t need us to tell you that automation is on an upward trajectory. To prove this point, a recent survey from McKinsey found that 83% of executives reported faster automation adoption rates in 2021 than in previous years. And while the demand for traditional automation solutions has increased, many organizations struggle to find fast and easy-to-implement solutions due to lengthy onboarding requirements, technical incompatibilities, and high up-front customization and costs. This is why we’ve designed our automation platform to be as simple as possible.
Hybrid Automation
Our Hybrid Automation platform is the first solution to combine workplace automation with a skilled human workforce. We work to empower organizations of all sizes to automate routine tasks, allowing employees to dedicate more time to work that is critical for growth. But how do we do this?
We’ve created a unique ‘building block’ structure, making it easy for anyone to build workflows that can leverage the very best of bots, API integrations, Robotic Process Automation (RPA), and a vast array of human skills—without any heavy technical lifting. And with this funding, we’ll be able to help even more organizations and empower even more teams to deliver high-quality work as efficiently as possible.
“For far too long, businesses have struggled with adopting automation because of the high costs of entry, rigid implementation processes, and overly complex language. This investment is the first step in bringing to market an automation solution that breaks these barriers and delivers on its mission of making automation insanely simple,” says Mohannad El-Barachi, our Co-Founder and CEO.
But don’t just take our word for it. Here’s what some of our leading investors had to say about why they backed Wrk:
“Unlike a lot of automation solutions, Wrk isn’t trying to replace human ingenuity—instead, it is leveraging a skilled team to tailor automated solutions for each customer, so businesses can scale when and where they need to, without the barriers that exist today," said Laura Lenz, Partner at OMERS Ventures.
"We hear from companies every day who are struggling to bridge the gap between the potential of autonomous workflows and the time and cost to implement them. We see enormous potential in backing a company that can do just that,” she continued.
“We were immediately excited about Wrk's product positioning in the workflow automation space,” added Christophe Bourque, General Partner at White Star Capital. “The increased adoption of automation tools by businesses, allied with the team’s unique approach combining human cognition with cutting-edge automation, has positioned the company for explosive growth. We look forward to working with the company as they continue to democratize access to business process automation solutions to companies big and small across the world."
https://player.vimeo.com/video/672802055?h=20db5b9a37&badge=0&autopause=0&player_id=0&app_id=58479
More about our leadership team
At the time of writing, we currently have almost 60 full-time employees, including a new leadership team with decades of collective experience innovating industry-leading organizations.
Our executive team hard at work.
First up we have Mathieu Rebeiro. Mathieu joins as Vice-President of Automation Solutions. Prior to joining us in 2021, Mathieu led automation at some of the largest financial institutions in the world including Royal Bank of Canada, TD Bank, and Sun Life Financial.
Next is Michael Thompson—our new SVP of Customer Operations. Michael is a seasoned executive with over 20 years of experience leading large operational organizations, most recently at Gannett, bringing start-ups to IPO through the implementation of people, process, and technology enhancements.
Finally, Jacques Bouchard brings over 2 decades of expertise to the role of Chief Technology Officer (CTO). Prior to joining Wrk, Jacques spent over a decade as CTO at Amazon’s Global Security Operations division where he was responsible for leading security technology efforts.
<meta charset="utf-8"/>Learn more about our founders, leadership team, and investors here!
https://player.vimeo.com/video/672880664?h=346bd86bf2&badge=0&autopause=0&player_id=0&app_id=58479
What’s next?
We’re proud of what we’ve accomplished thus far and we’re just getting started. This funding unlocks a lot of possibilities for us. We couldn’t be more thrilled to continue building and redefining the future of work.
We’re continuing to grow our team and build new Wrk Actions and Wrkflows every day to better serve our clients and their needs. Ultimately, we believe that automation doesn’t need to be complicated. We can’t wait to continue improving our automation platform. What's more, with this funding, we look forward to expanding our team even more.
Read the full press releases from VentureBeat, BetaKit, La Presse, and The Logic. If you’d like to learn more about how we can help simplify how you work, then why not book a demo with us today?
