BetterUp, a reskilling and coaching platform for employees before and after the C-suite, is embracing its feelings. Motive and Impraise, two companies in the emotional artificial intelligence and people management field, were acquired by the well-funded unicorn startup this week. The deal’s details haven’t been revealed.
After a hectic year in which BetterUp surpassed $100 million in annual recurring revenue, expanded to Europe, and reached 1 million individual coaching sessions on its platform, the company announced its acquisitions.
I’ll tell you the truth. It’s not unusual for a growth-stage company to use milestones to expand inorganically through acquisitions. What other options do you have for increasing your worth? BetterUp’s two deals stuck noteworthy to me because they point towards an unusual direction for the coaching sector. Please bear with me. BetterUp claims to have invented the coaching category by focusing on employees rather than simply C-suite executives. With these additions, the appearance and feel of coaching are changing.
Motive, for example, will assist BetterUp clients in comprehending the emotional context of data gathered via engagement surveys or polls. Instead of waiting for the long game of coaching to play out, it’s a plug-and-play strategy that allows companies to act on employee emotion more quickly.
Impraise, on the other hand, employs technology to assist managers in providing better support to their direct reports, including real-time performance reviews and more frictionless feedback channels. Impraise, like Motive, takes a step outside of the usual definition of coaching.
BetterUp CEO and co-founder Alexi Robichaux remarked, “The direct-report relationship is where change happens in people’s lives.” “Change does not occur during coaching sessions; it occurs afterward.”
In some ways, BetterUp’s acquisitions represent an admission that coaching for all employees must be an end-to-end solution involving everyone in the firm, from HR to managers. A weekly calendar invite isn’t going to cut it. Employers may be hesitant to give services to their employees in the first place because of this type of investment, but the pressure to retain employees may compel them to try regardless. The standard continues to be increased for alternative coaching and up-skilling platforms.
“Coaching can be a point solution, but it’s not enough, and we know better than anyone since we invented the point solution,” Robichaux explained. “You can’t have the outcomes if you don’t have the data platform. I’ll take you through Atlanta’s big bootstrapped moment, Casper’s horror, and Apple’s day in the rest of this newsletter. You may follow me on Twitter @nmasc_ and listen to my Equity podcast.
